Policy Papers
2008
October 24, 2008
A New Facility for Market Access Countries--The Short-Term Liquidity Facility
Description:
Please note that the Shorth-Term Liquidity Facility was discontinued March 29, 2009. The above information is no longer current. Read the press release.
The ongoing financial market turmoil is remarkable for its severity but also for the speed with which shocks have spread across markets and economies. Disruptions in short-term funding in mature markets, deleveraging and contraction of bank balance sheets, and contagion from a systemic loss of confidence are leading rapidly to sharply reduced financial flows to economies far from the origins of the crisis. Market turbulence in advanced economies has thus led to the emergence of short-term external liquidity needs even in emerging market countries with strong underlying domestic policies.
In these circumstances, the Fund’s traditional facilities may not always be the optimal means of addressing short-term balance of payments pressures. Stand-By Arrangements (SBAs) have been used flexibly to support members’ economic programs where both policy adjustment and financing were needed to address underlying vulnerabilities, buttress market confidence, and facilitate a member’s early return to market financing.
This paper proposes a special facility to complement existing instruments by filling a gap in the Fund’s toolkit.
October 23, 2008
Mongolia-Assessment Letter for the Asian Development Bank
Description: Assessment Letters or Statements may be prepared for member countries with Fund-supported programs; receiving Fund emergency assistance; with staff-monitored programs; or surveillance-only cases. They are typically produced for use by the country with multilateral or bilateral donors or creditors, in particular the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions.
October 8, 2008
Statement by the Managing Director to the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) on the IMF's Lending Role and Surveillance Priorities
Description: IMF staff has done extensive analysis of the crisis and its spillovers drawing on lessons from past crises, and disseminated information, analysis and policy advice through the Executive Board and intensive contacts with our members. We have also stepped up crisis preparedness efforts and are in close touch with individual members experiencing stress, standing ready to help with further advice and financial assistance.
October 8, 2008
Report of the Managing Director to the International Monetary and Financial Committee on the IMF's Policy Agenda-IMF Responses to Global Economic Challenges
Description: The report provides an update on work in the following areas: global stability, IMF lending, food and fuel price developments, and modernizing the IMF.
October 8, 2008
Provisional Agenda for the Eighteenth Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee
Description: The following is the provisional agenda for the Eighteenth Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, which is to be convened on Saturday, October 11, 2008, at the IMF's Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
October 6, 2008
Staff Guidance Note on the Application of the Joint Fund-Bank Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries
Description:
The objective of the joint Fund-Bank debt sustainability framework for low-income countries is to support LICs in their efforts to achieve their development goals without creating future debt problems. Countries that have received debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) need to be kept on a sustainable track. Under the framework, country DSAs are prepared jointly by Bank and Fund staff, with close collaboration between the two staffs on the design of the macroeconomic baseline, alternative scenarios, the debt distress rating, and the drafting of the write-up.
See the updated paper:
Staff Guidance Note on the Application of the Joint Bank-Fund Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries dated January 22, 2010
October 6, 2008
Periodic Monitoring Report on the Status of Implementation Plans in Response to Board-Endorsed IEO Recommendations
Description: This report updates the implementation status of Board-endorsed IEO recommendations since the completion of the first PMR in January 2008. In particular, it examines the implementation status for the two management implementation plans (MIPs) pertaining to the Board-endorsed IEO recommendations on IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa and IMF Exchange Rate Policy Advice: 1999-2005. It also reports on progress in implementing the outstanding recommendations from the first PMR. Although the requisite time has not elapsed since the May 2008 Board discussion of the MIP for the Board-endorsed recommendations in the IEO’s evaluation of Structural Conditionality in IMF-supported Programs, this PMR touches on aspects that have been implemented.
October 1, 2008
Nepal - Assessment Letter for the Asian Development Bank
Description: Assessment Letters or Statements may be prepared for member countries with Fund-supported programs; receiving Fund emergency assistance; with staff-monitored programs; or surveillance-only cases. They are typically produced for use by the country with multilateral or bilateral donors or creditors, in particular the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions.
September 29, 2008
Progress Report on the Activities of the Independent Evaluation Office
Description: The reports provides an update on the activities of the Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF since its last report to the IMFC in April 2008.
September 19, 2008
The Macroeconomics of Scaling-up Aid: the Cases of Benin, Niger, and Togo
Description: In September 2007, the UN Secretary General launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Africa Steering and Working Groups. The Steering Group brings together the leaders of multilateral institutions to identify practical steps needed for Africa to achieve the MDGs. The Managing Director of the IMF is a member of the Steering Group. The Working Group supports the Steering Group and is comprised of thematic groups in education, agriculture, health, infrastructure and trade facilitation, statistics, aid predictability, and MDG operationalization at the country level. The following three notes assess the macroeconomic implications of the spending of scaled-up aid to Benin, Niger, and Togo in line with that promised by the G-8 at Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005.