IMF Staff Position Notes
2009
June 15, 2009
The Southern African Development Community's Macroeconomic Convergence Program: Initial Performance
Description: This paper discusses initial performance of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Macroeconomic Convergence Program. The SADC’s regional economic integration agenda includes a macroeconomic convergence program, intended to achieve and maintain macroeconomic stability in the region, thereby contributing to faster economic growth and laying the basis for eventual monetary union. As macroeconomic performance in the SADC region has improved in recent years, most countries are making progress toward, and in many cases exceeding, the convergence criteria. Most SADC member states have recorded solid macroeconomic performance in recent years, in general coming close too, and in many cases surpassing, the convergence targets specified for 2008. A notable exception in this regard is Zimbabwe, which was in the grip of hyperinflation. The macroeconomic targets for later years are ambitious and, in some cases, warrant further evaluation, given that achieving the targets may be neither necessary nor enough to achieve good macroeconomic results.
June 9, 2009
Fiscal Implications of the Global Economic and Financial Crisis
Description: This note reflects macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts presented with the April 2009 World Economic Outlook, as well as information on fiscal stimulus and financial and industrial sector support gathered through mid-May. It follows the request by G-20 leaders for the Fund to assess regularly the actions taken by countries to address the global crisis and accelerate the recovery.
June 5, 2009
The Economics of Bank Restructuring: Understanding the Options
Description: Based on a simple framework, this note clarifies the economics behind bank restructuring and evaluates various restructuring options for systemically important banks. The note assumes that the government aims to reduce the probability of a bank’s default and keep the burden on taxpayers at a minimum. The note also acknowledges that the design of any restructuring needs to take into consideration the payoffs and incentives for the various key stakeholders (i.e., shareholders, debt holders, and government).
May 20, 2009
Fiscal Multipliers
Description: This paper provides background information for policymakers on fiscal multipliers, including quantitative estimates. The fiscal multiplier is the ratio of a change in output to an exogenous change in the fiscal deficit with respect to their respective baselines. The size of the multiplier is larger if: leakages are few; the monetary conditions are accommodative; and the country’s fiscal position after the stimulus is sustainable. Fiscal expansions can be contractionary if they decrease consumers’ and investors’ confidence, especially if the fiscal expansion raises, or reinforces, fiscal sustainability concerns. Fiscal multipliers have been calculated for some countries but should be carefully re-examined considering the current events. The degree of financial market development has an ambiguous effect on multipliers, depending on how the degree of financial development affects liquidity constraints, and the government’s ability to finance the fiscal deficit. The past research on multiplier estimates can provide guidance in developing multiplier estimates, but judgment, based on current conditions, is important.
May 14, 2009
Fiscal Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa in Response to the Impact of the Global Crisis
Description: The global financial crisis poses significant challenges to fiscal policies in Sub-Saharan African countries. Growth will weaken considerably as export prices and volumes, remittances, tourism, and capital flows decline. The fiscal effects of the crisis are likely to be large and to operate mainly via revenue losses, with commodity-related revenues particularly hard hit. Countries will need to weigh their options for fiscal policy responses. Countries with output gaps and sustainable debt and financing options have scope to implement expansionary policies, by letting automatic stabilizers work, accommodating declines in commodity-related revenues, and in some cases implementing discretionary fiscal stimulus. The focus of fiscal stimulus should be on the expenditure side, particularly infrastructure and social spending given pressing needs, as reducing tax rates may be inequitable and the scope for doing so is limited given low revenue ratios. Other countries will have to adjust, in a way that will not affect critical spending. Additional donor support would reduce the need for adjustment. In all cases, countries should give priority to expanding social safety nets as needed to cushion the impact of the crisis on the poor.
May 7, 2009
Policies to Mitigate Procyclicality
Description: This paper examines the reasons for this, specifically focusing on regulations or market practices that can accentuate economic cycles. Although recognizing various practical limitations, new policy responses are identified that could help to mitigate procyclicality. Although economic cycles are taken as a natural and recurring phenomenon, there are ways in which private sector behavior and practices, prudential regulation, and macroeconomic policies can act to magnify such cycles. A key challenge for policymakers will be to counter the exacerbating effects of prudential regulations while at the same time keeping the risk-based decision-making processes that are increasingly used in the private sector. Procyclicality is also embedded in credit risk management systems and guidelines, because the inputs (default probabilities, loss severities, default correlations, and credit ratings) tend to vary positively with economic cycles. Credit ratings are supposed to be assigned on a “through-the-cycle” basis, and not according to transitory fluctuations in credit quality.
April 23, 2009
Coping with the Crisis: Policy Options for Emerging Market Countries
Description: This chapter outlines policies to help solve the debt overhang and bring about recovery in both groups of countries. The current financial turmoil is confronting emerging market economies with two shocks: a ‘sudden stop’ of capital inflows resulting from the global deleveraging process, and a collapse in export demand associated with the global slump. A key ingredient appears to be greater official financing to expand the ‘policy space’ available to emerging market economies (EME) to pursue supportive macroeconomic policies—including, in countries with large debt overhangs, by helping to meet the fiscal outlays associated with the resolution of that overhang. An important first step is to ensure an adequate framework to facilitate rapid debt workouts. Debt restructuring mechanisms can provide greater scope for monetary easing by reducing the negative repercussions of exchange rate depreciation on unhedged balance sheets. Depending on the available fiscal space, expansionary fiscal policy should also be deployed to support economic activity.
March 26, 2009
Addressing Information Gaps
Description: This paper outlines some of the key information gaps in the information used in the assessment of financial institution and financial system stability and the priorities for filling them. Key areas for attention include the granularity of disclosures on exposures by large and complex financial institutions; disclosures and assessments of complex structured products; revamping of indicators used in financial stability analysis to focus on indicators with greater early warning content; and improving transparency in over-the-counter derivatives markets. Recommendations have been made by several institutions and forums to address gaps in information that contributed to the crisis. One of the key recommendations is to adopt good practices for disclosures by banks on activities affected by the financial turmoil, including meaningful information on exposures and impacts, with appropriate levels of granularity. It is imperative to strengthen public disclosure practices of systemically important financial institutions by making reporting information more granular and consist.
March 26, 2009
The Perimeter of Financial Regulation
Description: The G-20 has called for a review of the scope of financial regulation. This call reflects concern that the coverage of prudential regulation has been too narrow. A discussion of extending the regulatory perimeter should, therefore, weigh carefully the experience of the past two years against these considerations. It will also be important to understand whether the assumptions underlying the existing regulatory model for banks are fatally flawed, or whether better regulation and supervision of the banks would be adequate. This set of proposals would represent a major increase in the scope of regulation of institutions, products, and markets. The proposals would best be taken forward as part of a broad program of financial sector reform, including the development of a macroprudential framework for assessing and managing systemwide risk. Even if new regulation is carefully designed to be proportionate to the risks in each new area, there will clearly be increased costs to the system. There would be an increased regulatory burden, which would also carry risks of unintended consequences. The current crisis has clearly shown that the cost of the alternative is also high.
March 18, 2009
Why Has Japan Been Hit So Hard by the Global Recession?
Description: The Japanese economy has been hit hard by the slump in global demand for advanced manufacturing products such as cars, information technology, and machinery, which account for a larger share of production than in other G-7 economies. Most of the drop in Japan’s exports was caused by a sharp retrenchment in overseas demand for motor vehicles, information technology, and capital goods, as firms and consumers cut their investment and durable goods spending in response to the global credit crunch and extraordinary uncertainties about the outlook. Worsening domestic financial conditions deepened the current recession by reducing domestic demand, especially business investment. The short-term outlook is further clouded by the needed adjustment to inventories, which have accumulated well above normal levels in both Japan and its export markets. During the 2001 recession, industrial production started recovering about 5 months after the peak of the inventory cycle. By analogy, one could expect a bottom in industrial production around May 2009. However, since the global environment is expected to remain weak and the Japanese economy faces headwinds from tight domestic financial conditions, the production adjustment could take longer during this recession.