Policy Papers
2010
May 27, 2010
Central Banking Lessons from the Crisis
Description: The crisis brought the financial system to the verge of systemic collapse and raised the prospect of depression and deflation. Central banks helped defuse these threats, including through exceptional measures. Considerable efforts are now under way to draw policy lessons from the crisis. For central banks, the crisis seems to provide three important lessons for policy frameworks—mainly concerning systemic financial stability.
May 24, 2010
Statement by the Managing Director on the Work Program of the Executive Board - Executive Board Meeting - May 24, 2010
Description: Recent events make clear that the global economy remains vulnerable, and that important work remains to be done to secure the recovery and prevent future crises. We must adapt to new challenges and ensure that the institution is equipped with the right tools to assess pressing risks to global stability and, when crisis prevention efforts are not enough, with the right instruments to restore confidence.
April 30, 2010
From Stimulus to Consolidation - Revenue and Expenditure Policies in Advanced and Emerging Economies
Description:
This paper identifies policy tools to support fiscal consolidation in the years ahead. Its starting point is the analysis in the recent Board papers describing strategies for fiscal consolidation (IMF, 2010a, 2010b), which showed that on current trends, general government debt in advanced countries would rise 36 percentage points of GDP during 2007–14, and that age-related spending (health and pension) would rise rapidly later, further adding to fiscal pressures. Trends are more favorable in emerging economies, but adjustments are needed there too.
Also Available in Russian
April 23, 2010
Key Issues Note by the IMF Managing Director to the IMFC on the Global Economy and Financial Markets—Outlook and Policy Responses
Description: Securing the recovery. The global recovery has been better than expected. The WEO projections see global output expanding by about 4¼ percent in 2010 and 2011. Extraordinary and coordinated policy intervention since the crisis has all but eliminated the risk of another Great Depression, laying the foundation for recovery. Nevertheless, the recovery is proceeding at varying speeds—it is tepid and policy-dependent in many advanced economies, but solid in most emerging and developing economies.
April 22, 2010
PP4463-Proposal-for-a-Post-Catastrophe-Debt-Relief-Trust-Fund
Description: This paper proposes a new trust fund that would enable the IMF to join international debt relief efforts for Haiti and other low-income countries hit by similar catastrophic disasters. Following the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti, an international consensus emerged that creditors should consider full debt relief to support Haiti’s recovery. Haiti’s debt to the IMF stands at SDR 178 million.
April 21, 2010
Progress Report on the Activities of the Independent Evaluation Office
Description: Since its last report to the IMFC in October 2009, the IEO has completed its evaluation report on IMF Interactions with Member Countries and finalized issues papers for evaluations on the IMF Performance in the Run-up to the Current Financial and Economic Crisis and Research at the IMF: Relevance and Utilization. On February 1, Moisés Schwartz assumed his duties as the third Director of the IEO.
April 21, 2010
Executive Board Progress Report to the IMFC on the Reform of Fund Governance
Description: Reform package. Comprehensive reform of Fund governance—encompassing quotas, ministerial engagement and oversight, the size and composition of the Executive Board, voting rules, management selection, and staff diversity—is essential to enhancing the Fund’s long-term legitimacy and effectiveness. Although the elements of such a reform are being discussed sequentially, and some could be taken up sooner, most will need to be decided as a package, given the linkages and trade-offs.
April 20, 2010
Benin - Assessment Letter for the World Bank
Description: This letter provides an assessment of recent macroeconomic developments in Benin and an update on the discussions of Fund staff with the Beninese authorities on macroeconomic policies and structural reforms that could form the basis for the authorities’ request for a new arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). An earlier assessment letter to donors was issued in December 2009 and is available at http://0-www-imf-org.library.svsu.edu/external/pp/longres.aspx?id=4399.
April 20, 2010
Statement by the Managing Director to the International Monetary and Financial Committee on the IMF Reform Agenda
Description: We cannot allow the return of economic stability to signify a return to "business as usual" for the IMF. The crisis exposed huge cracks in the international financial architecture of which the Fund is a key part. We have an historic responsibility to fix them. I urge all of us to recommit to seeing our collective goals to the finish line before reform fatigue sets in.
April 20, 2010
Update on the Financing of the Fund’s Concessional Assistance and Debt Relief to Low-Income Member Countries
Description:
This paper reviews the status of financing for the Fund’s concessional lending and debt relief activities for low-income countries (LICs). It is based on the latest available data and projections, and it takes into account the commitments made so far in response to the Managing Director’s fund-raising request of August 2009.
The paper is organized as follows. Section II summarizes: (i) the comprehensive reforms of the Fund’s concessional lending instruments and the associated financing framework that have become effective since the last review; and (ii) the measures that the Board recently endorsed to facilitate the needed mobilization of loan resources. Section III on the financing of PRGT operations begins by reviewing the projected financing needs established in July 2009 in light of recent commitments under the PRGT, and then considers the status of loan and subsidy resources, before discussing developments in the PRGT Reserve Account. Sections IV and V provide updates on the subsidization of emergency assistance and the financing of debt relief under the HIPC and MDRI.