Country Reports
2022
August 4, 2022
Cameroon: Second Reviews Under The Extended Credit Facility And The Extended Fund Facility Arrangements, And Requests For Waivers For Performance Criteria Applicability And Modification Of Performance Criterion—Press Release; Staff Report; And Statement By The Executive Director For Cameroon
Description: Following two years of COVID-19 challenges, Cameroon, the largest economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC), is facing a new policy environment. The nascent economic recovery from mid-2021, supported by higher oil prices and non-oil production, is now subject to greater uncertainties with spillovers from the war in Ukraine, high inflationary pressures, especially on food and fuel prices, and a tightening of global financial conditions. Low vaccination rates also leave the country vulnerable to further COVID-19 waves. In July 2021, the IMF’s Executive Board approved three-year arrangements under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for SDR 483 million (about US$689.5 million, or 175 percent of Cameroon’s quota) to support the country’s economic and financial reform program.
August 3, 2022
Germany: Financial Sector Assessment Program: Detailed Assessment Of Observance Of The CPSS-IOSCO Principles For Financial Market Infrastructures–Clearstream Banking AG Frankfurt
Description: Clearstream Banking Frankfurt (CBF) is a highly interconnected financial market infrastructure that provides a critical service for German financial markets and beyond. CBF is the central securities depository (CSD) in Germany providing mainly custody and settlement services, having received its license pursuant to Art. 16 of the CSDR on January 21, 2020 allowing it to perform core CSD services as well as non-banking ancillary services. It is also the operator of two securities settlement systems (SSS). In addition, CBF was authorized on August 24, 2021 to provide banking-type ancillary services as envisaged under Art. 54 CSDR.
August 3, 2022
Republic of South Sudan: 2022 Article IV Consultation And Second Review Under The Staff-Monitored Program
Description: South Sudan is a very fragile post-conflict state and one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate-driven disasters. The pandemic reversed the economic recovery that followed the 2018 peace agreement. The oil price shock from the pandemic resulted in a massive loss of revenue, causing the government to run up expenditure arrears and resume monetary financing. This led to sharp exchange rate depreciation and runaway inflation. The policies implemented under a Staff Monitored Program (SMP) that was approved in March 2021 and supported by two disbursements under the RCF (in November 2020 and March 2021) have helped restore macroeconomic stability and eliminate a long-standing system of multiple exchange rates. Higher oil prices have dampened the effects of floods on lower oil production and sustained international reserves in the face of a rising import bill. The sharp rise in global food prices risks is exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in South Sudan, where 70 percent of the population suffers from acute food insecurity, at a time when aid budgets are being cut.
August 3, 2022
Republic of Equatorial Guinea: 2022 Article IV Consultation—Press Release; Staff Report; And Statement By The Executive Director for Republic of Equatorial Guinea
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, and Bata explosions in 2021, struck oil-exporter Equatorial Guinea at a time when its economic vulnerabilities had already been aggravated by a prolonged period of depressed hydrocarbon prices, and seven consecutive years of decline in real GDP. The economy is slowly emerging from the ravages of the 2020-21 shocks, buoyed by higher international oil prices. However, substantial challenges remain: (i) surging food prices and banking sector vulnerabilities cloud the short term, while (ii) declining hydrocarbon productionand the implied decline in external reservesloom over the medium term, especially in light of lagging governance and diversification reform implementation.
August 3, 2022
Germany: Financial Sector Assessment Program Technical Note—Insurance Regulation And Supervision
Description: The Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) conducted a focused review of insurance regulation and supervision in Germany. This technical note (TN) provides an update on the insurance sector and highlights risks and vulnerabilities. It analyzes four key aspects of regulatory and supervisory oversight: supervisory powers, independence, and resources; the solvency framework; supervision; and changes of control and resolution.2 The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is the federal German insurance supervisor. BaFin is subject to oversight by the Federal Ministry of Finance (MoF), which is accountable to the Federal Parliament. The analysis focuses on supervision within the scope of BaFin’s mandate. The TN comments on progress in respect of the implementation of recommendations made by the previous FSAP and offers further recommendations to strengthen the regulatory and supervisory regime.
August 3, 2022
Germany: Financial Sector Assessment Program Technical Note—Regulation And Supervision Of Less Significant Institutions
Description: The Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) conducted a focused review that primarily assessed banking regulation and supervision of Germany’s less significant institutions (LSIs).1 Germany accounts for 1,324 of about 2,400 total LSIs in the Euro Area (representing 40 percent of Germany’s banking sector assets and approximately 55 per cent of total Euro Area LSI assets). As Germany is part of the Euro Area, the regulation and supervision of banks takes place within the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the Deutsche Bundesbank (BBk) are responsible, under the oversight of the ECB, for the supervision of LSIs.
August 3, 2022
Germany: Financial Sector Assessment Program Technical Note—Macroprudential Policy Framework And Tools
Description: Germany’s macroprudential policy framework and toolkit are well developed. The FSAP found the institutional arrangements for macroprudential policy to be mostly sound and operating well. Capacity and expertise in risk monitoring is good, thanks to the analytical power and data access of the central bank, and close coordination between the macro- and microprudential arms of the financial supervisory authorities. Germany’s macroprudential toolkit continues to develop. The principal outstanding task is to add powers to set caps on debt-to-income and debt service-to-income ratios on residential real estate loans to the already-established powers over loan-to-value ratios and amortization rates. These additions will place Germany’s toolkit on a par with its peers.
August 1, 2022
Italy: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Italy
Description: GDP has fully recovered from the pandemic crisis, but government debt has risen to very high levels. The war in Ukraine triggered a surge in energy prices and the prospect of monetary policy tightening caused government bond yields to rise sharply. Implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), which provides large EU grants and loans conditioned on implementing a comprehensive reform and investment program, is underway.
July 29, 2022
Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Technical Assistance Report on Government Finance Statistics Mission (October 4-29, 2021)
Description: This paper presents Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s Technical Assistance report on government finance statistics (GFS) mission. There has been a progress on a gradual basis in the timeliness of GFS compilation and dissemination to the IMF due to an improvement in coordination between the Fiscal Policy and Law Department and data providers on the provision of source data, but these data are still not reconciled in a more regular and timelier basis. Monthly budget execution data which is used for GFS compilation, such as other allowances and subsidies in expenditure in particular, are aggregated and prepared according to source data from the data providers. The Annual budget for FY2022 including fiscal package including fiscal measures for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response was submitted to the National Assembly in Nov/Dec 2021. The report recommends to coordinate with relevant departments including the Budget Department in the reporting system and/or the Inter-ministerial Committee to collect data for COVID-19 related spending for tracing and monitoring the spending.