Policy Papers
2020
May 1, 2020
Extension of Consultation Cycles Due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Description: To better respond to the unprecedented demand from the membership for financing and crisis support in response to the covid-19 pandemic, there is a temporary postponement of staff’s work on Article IV consultations and mandatory Financial Stability Assessments. To ensure the postponement has no adverse impact of members’ compliance with their obligations, the deadlines for upcoming Article IV consultations and for discussions with currency unions have been extended by 6 months. This paper provides additional background on these temporary arrangements.
April 23, 2020
Implementation Plan in Response to The Board-Endorsed Recommendations From The IEO Evaluation Report on IMF Advice on Unconventional Monetary Policies
Description: The Management Implementation Plan was prepared before COVID-19 became a global pandemic and resulted in unprecedented strains in global trade, commodity, and financial markets. The actions in this plan and their timeline, therefore, do not reflect the implications of these developments and related policy priorities. The actions aim to: Strengthen in-house expertise on monetary policy; Deepen the work on UMP and related policies; Further strengthen financial spillover analysis; Explore ways to enhance the Fund’s traction.
April 22, 2020
IMF COVID-19 Response—A New Short-Term Liquidity Line to Enhance The Adequacy Of The Global Financial Safety Net
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe disruption in the global financial system, with many emerging market and developing countries (EMDCs) facing liquidity shortages. In the context of intensified demand for liquidity and heightened global uncertainty, staff has revisited the 2017 proposal for a new facility to provide liquidity support to the Fund’s membership. This paper proposes the establishment of a new Short-term Liquidity Line (SLL) as a special facility in the General Resources Account (GRA), based on the key features of the 2017 blueprint.
April 17, 2020
IMF Managing Director's Statement to the Development Committee, April 2020
Description: The global coronavirus outbreak is a crisis like no other and poses daunting challenges for policymakers in many emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), especially where the pandemic encounters weak public health systems, capacity constraints, and limited policy space to mitigate the outbreak’s repercussions. A severe economic impact in the first half of 2020 is inevitable. Medium-term projections are clouded by uncertainty regarding the pandemic’s magnitude and speed of propagation, as well as the longer-term impact of measures to contain the outbreak, such as travel bans and social distancing. However, most EMDEs are already suffering from disruptions to global value chains, lower foreign direct investment, capital outflows, tighter financing conditions, lower tourism and remittances receipts, and price pressures for some critical imports such as foods and medicines. Commodity exporters have to absorb, in addition, a sharp decline in export prices, notably for oil. Further, in most countries, the coronavirus outbreak is producing unanticipated health spending needs and revenue losses as activity slows. Coping with these challenges is especially difficult for countries with limited administrative capacity, tight external financing constraints and/or already high debt levels, and thus requires substantial support from the international community.
April 17, 2020
Tonga—IMF Assessment Letter for the World Bank
Description: This letter provides IMF staff’s current assessment of Tonga’s macroeconomic conditions, prospects, and policies. The assessment has been requested in relation to the World Bank’s Resilience Development Policy Operation.
April 15, 2020
The Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda, Spring Meetings 2020: Exceptional Times Exceptional Action
Description: Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s Global Policy Agenda, Exceptional Times, Exceptional Action, highlights three priorities for policymakers around the world: protect lives, protect livelihoods, and plan for the recovery. She Says “The reality is that anyone’s fight against the #COVID-19 virus is everyone’s fight. More than ever we need global solidarity, a common resolve, and coordinated international efforts. And with so many countries short on resources, we need to give more support to those most in need,”.
April 15, 2020
Progress Report to The IMFC On the Activities Of The Independent Evaluation Office Of The IMF
Description: Like everyone else, the IEO is now adapting to new realities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. During the five months after the 2019 Annual Meetings, the IEO completed two reports, continued work on two ongoing evaluations, and launched one new evaluation. The IMF also made good progress in following up on past IEO evaluations, including completion of a triage exercise aimed at dealing with the backlog of off-track actions. Unfortunately, IEO work plans are now being affected by the current crisis, as the Fund’s work is necessarily dominated by the challenge of meeting members’ urgent needs. Planned IEO engagement with the Board has been delayed and the schedule for ongoing and new evaluations has to be extended. Nevertheless, the IEO will continue to advance its work program as best it can within the new constraints.
April 15, 2020
Catastrophe Containment And Relief Trust—Approval Of Grant Assistance For Debt Service Relief
Description: This paper proposes that the Executive Board determine that the global COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a Qualifying Public Health Disaster (QPHD) under the Catastrophe Containment (CC) Window of the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), in line with the new QPHD test approved by the Board on March 26. The CCRT has sufficient financial resources for an initial tranche of grant assistance for debt service relief covering eligible debt falling due from all CCRT-eligible members through October 13, 2020. Fundraising efforts continue to secure the financial resources needed to commit future such tranches for CCRT debt service relief, up to a cap of two years. Staff considers that the 25 members requesting CCRT assistance qualify for immediate CCRT relief.
April 9, 2020
Enhancing the Emergency Financing Toolkit—Responding To The COVID-19 Pandemic
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a human toll and has unleashed a series of shocks on the Fund’s entire membership, creating severe disruption in the global economic and financial system. As a result, many emerging market and developing country (EMDC) members face urgent and unprecedented financing needs, creating significant immediate demand for Fund resources. In order to respond to members’ large and urgent financing needs, the paper proposes to enhance the Fund’s emergency financing toolkit, through a temporary increase in access limits for both the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), available to all members, and the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), available to Poverty Reduction Growth Trust-eligible members only. It is proposed to increase these access limits for a proposed period of six months, which may be extended by the Executive Board. A companion Board paper sets out proposals to accelerate Board consideration of member requests for financing under the RCF and RFI, completion of reviews and requests for changes in access in existing arrangements, and requests for grant assistance under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust.
April 9, 2020
Streamlining Procedures for Board Consideration of The Fund’s Emergency Financing During Exceptional Circumstances Involving A Pandemic
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted an unprecedented shock on the global economy and created an enormous demand for Fund resources. To accelerate processing and approval of members’ requests in such circumstances, the paper proposes measures to expedite Board consideration and approval of requests for purchases and/or disbursements under the Rapid Financing Instrument and/or the Rapid Credit Facility, respectively, completion of reviews and requests for changes in access in existing arrangements, and requests for assistance under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), by shortening the circulation period for Board documents. The paper also proposes extending the use of the shortened circulation period to selected Article IV consultations necessary for use of Fund resources during a global pandemic. Management will also streamline internal procedures to accelerate program processing and reduce the burden on the Fund’s administrative capacity, and will seek the support of creditors to expedite the processing of financial transactions under COVID-19 emergency financing.