Bolivia has a long track record of substantial progress in the areas of macroeconomic stability and structural adjustment; however, poverty remains widespread. Although there were significant delays and setbacks in the execution of the structural adjustment program, some important advances were...

This paper discusses Congo’s Fourth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), and Requests for Waiver of Performance Criteria. Overall performance under the program was satisfactory and at end-March 2004, 8 out of the 11 quantitative...

This 2004 Article IV Consultation highlights that impressive growth continued unabated in Lithuania in 2004. GDP expanded by an estimated 6¾ percent in 2004, driven by vigorous private consumption and investment growth. The unemployment rate declined to 10½ percent of the labor force but...

This paper reviews economic developments in Haiti during 1990–94. In the public finances, the current account of the nonfinancial public sector (before grants) shifted from balance in 1991 to a deficit of 3.8 percent of GDP in 1994. With the lack of foreign financing, capital investment...

The resilience displayed by the New Zealand economy throughout the turbulence is a clear testimony of the benefits of the economic reforms. Executive Directors appreciated these developments, and cautioned against reforms that could reduce labor and product market flexibility, and suggested that...

Fiscal rules are being increasingly used by both emerging and developed economies. This paper analyzes two alternative fiscal policy rules in terms of their impact on debt sustainability: a rule that fixes the ratio of primary surplus to GDP ("fixed surplus rule") and one that sets the primary...

This paper analyzes reserve adequacy in emerging market countries. It argues that the old rule of thumb of maintaining reserves equivalent to three months of imports has become obsolete and that, instead, a new benchmark is needed which takes into account the increased importance of capital...

Rodriguez and Rodrik (2000) argue that the relation between openness and growth is still an open question. One of the main problems in the assessment of the effect is the endogeneity of the relation. In order to address this issue, this paper applies the identification through heteroskedasticity...

Large inflows from the European Union to the New Member States are likely to significantlyimpact macroeconomic outcomes. In this paper, we use the IMF's Global Integrated Monetaryand Fiscal model (GIMF) to analyze the impact of the transfers and show the conditionsunder which they would help...

This paper proposes an integrated and risk-based approach to the sequencing and coordination of reforms to develop domestic financial markets. The paper argues that there is a hierarchy of financial markets that reflects the complexity of risks in each market and the interlinkages among markets....