Country Reports
2023
February 15, 2023
Guinea-Bissau: Request for a Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility-Press Release; and Staff Report
Description: Guinea-Bissau is a fragile state with significant development challenges, including limited fiscal space, debt vulnerabilities and poor governance. After years of political turmoil and delayed reforms, in 2021 the authorities started the implementation of an ambitious fiscal consolidation program to ensure debt sustainability while creating fiscal space to address developmental needs. A Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) disbursement of SDR 14.2 million (50 percent of quota) was approved in January 2021 to provide urgent financing to support critical spending in health. A nine-month SMP with three quarterly reviews, approved in July 2021 ended with satisfactory performance building track record of policy implementation towards an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement. The August 2021 SDR 27.2 million allocation and the reforms underpinned by the SMP have helped address the adverse impact of the pandemic, while improving the transparency of government spending, and mitigating debt vulnerabilities.
February 15, 2023
Republic of Congo: Second Review under the Three-year Extended Credit Facility Arrangement, Requests for Modification and Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria, and Financing Assurances Review-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for the Republic of Congo
Description: Strengthened economic recovery remains fragile amid high food inflation, driven by increased import costs following Russia’s war in Ukraine. High global oil prices are benefitting the Congo’s crude oil exports but higher refined fuel import costs were subsidized by the government, widening the 2022 non-oil fiscal deficit. Sustained reform efforts are needed for economic diversification, which would reduce Congo’s fragilities, create jobs, and raise incomes. Debt remains sustainable but classified as “in distress” due to arrears; a financing assurances review was conducted. The first review of the three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement (SDR 324 million, 200 percent of quota) was concluded by the IMF Executive Board on June 24, 2022.
February 15, 2023
Republic of Congo: Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy
Description: The 2022-2026 NDP is based on the tradition of development planning in the Congo and on the President of the Republic's social project, "Together, let us continue the march". This project reflects a vision of the process of building a society that ensures social progress for all, in solidarity and peace, through the creation of conditions for inclusive growth, based on a strong economy.
February 14, 2023
Republic of Moldova: Poverty Reduction Strategy and Growth Strategy
Description: The Republic of Moldova is continuously transforming, directly affected by regional and global events: the rise in the cost of energy and food products, the security crisis in the region created by the aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the reformation of value chains and even climate change affecting agricultural production. In this extremely difficult context, in addition to the short-term interventions needed to cope with the current crises, the Government has proposed to define a medium- and long-term development vision, in order to strengthen our resilience to future crises and create the basis for a sustainable and inclusive development of the country.
February 10, 2023
Jamaica: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report and Staff Statement
Description: The 2022 Article IV Consultation highlights that Jamaica has been buffeted by a difficult global environment—from coronavirus disease (COVID), the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing tightening of global financial conditions. The authorities provided targeted support to vulnerable households and firms during the pandemic but promptly scaled it back as conditions normalized. Similarly, in the wake of the war in Ukraine, domestic food and energy prices adjusted in line with shifts in international markets while targeted support was provided to the poor. Discussions focused on the prompt post-COVID fiscal consolidation and monetary policy tightening, which were instrumental to secure debt sustainability, respond to global shocks and aid the return of inflation to the target band. The IMF staff assess that maintaining high primary balances over the medium term remains important for debt sustainability. The Article IV consultation places a special focus on climate change. Despite contributing insignificantly to global greenhouse gas emissions, Jamaica’s geographical and socio-economic characteristics make the country vulnerable to climate events that are becoming larger and more frequent due to global warming.
February 10, 2023
Panama: Technical Assistance Report-Macroprudential Policy Frameworks
Description: At the request of the Superintendency of Banks of Panama (SBP), IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) provided two technical assistance (TA) missions in 2021 on macroprudential policy. This TA report is about the first mission, which evaluated the overall macroprudential policy framework in Panama, covering (1) the institutional arrangements; (2) the framework to assess systemic risks to prepare for policy actions; and (3) the policy toolkit. The assessment was conducted based on the IMF guidance (IMF, 2014), taking into account the country-specific circumstances in Panama. The TA report summarizes the mission’s findings and recommendations that were discussed with the authorities.
February 8, 2023
Malta: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; and Staff Report
Description: Malta’s economy rebounded strongly from the pandemic. However, the indirect impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including the anticipated slowdown in the European economy, high and volatile global energy prices, rising import costs, and weakened public finances following the pandemic are weighing on the outlook. The Maltese economy is expected to slow from 6¼ percent this year to 3¼ percent in 2023. The financial system has proved to be resilient to the pandemic with ample capital and liquidity buffers. In June 2022, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed Malta from its grey list of anti-money laundering and combatting the financing terrorism (AML/CFT) framework.
February 7, 2023
Republic of Croatia: Representative Rate for the Euro
Description: The Council of the European Union decided on July 12, 2022 that the Republic of Croatia had fulfilled the necessary conditions for adoption of the euro with effect from January 1, 2023,1 and that the conversion rate should be set at 7.53450 Croatian kuna per one euro.2 The Croatian authorities notified the Fund on October 5, 2022, that the euro will be their country’s currency, effective from January 1, 2023.