This report provides an assessment of fiscal transparency practices in Israel against the requirements of the IMF Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency. The assessment has two parts. The first part is a description of practice, prepared by the IMF staff on the basis of discussions with...

This paper analyzes economic developments in El Salvador during 1990–97. The paper assesses the prospects of the Salvadoran economy in facing the new challenges coming from its reinsertion into the global economy. The paper describes the evolution of trade competitiveness and evaluates...

This 2005 Article IV Consultation highlights that since the last Article IV Consultation, Bangladesh’s economy has continued to expand, supported by a stable macroeconomic environment and progress in implementing structural reforms, broadly in line with the recommendations made by the IMF...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the challenge of population aging for Belgium. It argues that the aging strategy should be broadened to include more explicitly the objective of raising employment rates to foster potential growth. The paper discusses assumptions underlying the official aging...

This Statistical Appendix paper for the periods between 1996/97 and 2001/02 for Nepal discusses both nominal and real gross domestic product by sector; savings and investments; agricultural production and yields; Manufacturing Production Indices; energy consumption; tourism indicators; Consumer...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

This 2005 Article IV Consultation for Samoa reports that the combination of sound economic management and structural reform had led to robust growth, low inflation, sound public finances, and a comfortable external position. With continued commitment to sound macroeconomic and reform policies,...

The abolition of the fluctuation bands by the Icelandic government is seen as the final step of a consistent and gradual move toward increased exchange rate flexibility. Supplemented by the adoption of an inflation targeting regime, the new monetary policy framework should suit Iceland better....

The staff report for the Sixth Review under the Stand-By Arrangement and Requests for Waiver of Performance Criteria on Bolivia highlights economic developments and preliminary macroeconomic framework. The economy is characterized by a number of vulnerabilities that require policy vigilance....

Although the advent of the single currency has generated many advantages for the smaller economies of the euro area, it has raised the possibility that both the amplitude and the duration of cycles in these countries will prove greater than in the past. In the absence of country-specific...