This paper presents a decision point document for Togo’s Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. Economic performance has been improving although the country has been strongly affected by the recent surge in food and fuel prices as well as heavy flooding during the...

In April 2009, the Boards of Executive Directors of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed that Côte d’Ivoire had met the requirements for reaching the decision point under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)...

According to IMF and IDA authorities, Guinea-Bissau had met the requirements for reaching the decision point under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The authorities appreciated the country’s tremendous efforts to reestablish economic, social, and...

This paper discusses Togo’s progress under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. In November 2008, the Boards of Executive Directors of the IDA and the IMF agreed that Togo had met the requirements for reaching the decision point under the Enhanced HIPC...

This Ex-Post Assessment of Longer-Term Program Engagement for Ghana explains its experience with particular attention to the IMF's role. Progress in structural reform was slow, but Ghana also avoided mistakes made by some countries that introduced reforms without enough public support....

This paper investigates the sensitivity of Colombian GDP growth to the surroundingmacroeconomic environment. We estimate a Bayesian VAR model with informative steady-statepriors for the Colombian economy using quarterly data from 1995 to 2007. A variancedecomposition shows that world GDP growth...

We study how investors account for the riskiness of banks' risk-weighted assets (RWA) by examining the determinants of stock returns and market measures of risk. We find that banks with higher RWA had lower stock returns over the US and European crises. This relationship is weaker in Europe...

This paper focuses on the Fifth Post-Program Monitoring Discussions with Jordan. Jordan’s economic performance remains strong. Growth is robust, core inflation is contained, the current account deficit is narrowing, reserves are comfortable, and the fiscal situation continues to improve....

Prudent macroeconomic policies helped Turkey to achieve economic growth under the Stand-By Arrangement. Executive Directors welcomed this development and stressed the need to widen the account deficit. They emphasized the need of a strong budget, powerful monetary and fiscal policies, and...

This paper discusses Mozambique’s Third Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria. Performance under the program has been broadly satisfactory so far in 2005. All quantitative and...