Policy Papers
2013
July 18, 2013
List of IMF Member Countries with Delays in Completion of Article IV Consultations or Mandatory Financial Stability Assessments Over 18 Months
Description: The following table lists the IMF members for which the Article IV consultation or the mandatory financial stability assessment has been delayed by more than 18 months. The delay is counted past the scheduled expected date, plus any applicable grace period.
July 17, 2013
Proposed Amendment on the Reform of the IMF Executive Board and Fourteenth General Review of Quotas - Status of Acceptances and Consents
Description: This status report reviews progress toward implementation of the 2010 Quota and Governance Reforms. It updates the status of consents to the proposed quota increases under the 14th General Review of Quotas and of acceptances of the Proposed Seventh Amendment on the Reform of the Executive Board (“Board Reform Amendment” or “Seventh Amendment”) as set out in the Board of Governors Resolution No. 66-2.
July 16, 2013
Global Liquidity - Credit and Funding Indicators
Description: This note reviews some concepts of global liquidity and discusses measurement approaches that have been used by various interlocutors, including at the BIS, by Fund staff, and in academia. Some measures that could be regularly monitored by policy makers are presented.
July 16, 2013
Case Studies of Fiscal Councils - Functions and Impact
Description: This supplement presents case studies of seven fiscal councils and examines how each council performs its core functions and if and how it impacts on the fiscal policy debate. The seven fiscal councils are: Belgium (Conseil Supérieur des Finances—HCF), Canada (Parliamentary Budget Officer—PBO), Hungary (Költségvetési Tanács), Korea (National Assembly Budget Office—NABO), the Netherlands (Centraal Planbureau—CPB), Sweden (Finanspolitiska rådet), and the United States (Congressional Budget Office-CBO). The main paper presents the comparative lessons and the general findings of this study based on a systematic comparison of these fiscal councils’ experiences. This supplement discusses in detail each individual fiscal council’s experiences.
July 16, 2013
The Functions and Impact of Fiscal Councils
Description: In recent years, a rapidly growing number of countries have established independent agencies aimed at promoting sound fiscal policies. Although these institutions vary greatly in terms of their remit, tasks, and institutional forms, they tend to share an explicit mandate enshrined in legislation, a “watchdog” role implying a direct contribution to the public debate on fiscal policy, and strict non-partisanship in their activities. Importantly, fiscal councils do not have the discretion to set policy instruments. Unlike independent central banks in the monetary policy area, they are only facilitators of sound fiscal public finances, not decision makers deliberately insulated from politics. Earlier IMF staff analysis of non-partisan fiscal agencies (IMF, 2005, expanded by Debrun, Hauner and Kumar, 2009) referred to the generic term of “fiscal council” to designate these institutions. A handful of similar bodies have been in place for a long time—mostly in advanced economies.
July 9, 2013
Local Currency Bond Markets - A Diagnostic Framework
Description: In November 2011, the G-20 endorsed an action plan to support the development of local currency bond markets (LCBM). International institutions—the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD, and the OECD—were asked to draw on their experience to develop a diagnostic framework (DF) to identify general preconditions, key components, and constraints for successful LCBM development. The objective is to provide a tool for analyzing the state of development and efficiency of local currency bond markets. The application of the DF is expected to be flexible, bearing in mind that the potential for LCBM development depends on economic size, financing needs, and stage of economic development.
July 3, 2013
Report on the Incidence of Longer-Term Program Engagement
Description: Longer-term program engagement (LTPE) occurs when a member has spent at least seven of the past 10 years under Fund-supported financial arrangements. In response to the Executive Board’s request for periodic updates on the incidence of LTPEs, this is the fourteenth such report and provides information through July 1, 2013.
July 3, 2013
2013 Spillover Report - Analytical Underpinnings and Other Background
Description: High uncertainty in general, and high policy uncertainty more specifically, can have important impact on global investment and output growth. Much of the recent policy uncertainty emanated from the United States and Europe—the world’s two largest economies. Spillovers from policy uncertainty can occur through several channels. Trade can be affected if increased policy uncertainty adversely affects economic activity and import demand in the United States and Europe. Policy uncertainty could also raise global risk aversion, resulting in sharp corrections in financial markets and capital outflows from emerging markets. This background note attempts to quantify the impact of U.S. and European policy uncertainty on other regions. Specifically, it addresses the following questions: What do we mean by policy uncertainty? How well can we measure it? How has policy uncertainty in the United States and Europe evolved during the past several decades? And how large are the spillovers to economic activity in other regions? The analysis suggests that sharp increases in U.S. and European policy uncertainty in the past have temporarily lowered investment and output in other regions to varying degrees. It also suggests that a marked decrease in policy uncertainty in the United States and Europe in the near term could help boost global investment and output.
July 2, 2013
2013 Spillover Report
Description: Five years after the global financial crisis, the severe tensions and risks rooted last year in some of the “Systemic five” (S5)—China, euro area, Japan, United Kingdom, United States––have abated but all five are still operating below potential, i.e., they are not contributing to global activity as much as they might: if they could somehow close their output gaps, global output would be closer to potential by 3 percentage points. Meanwhile, many parts of the rest of the world have been at or near potential. Most recently though, there have been signs of accelerated recovery in the United States and slowdown in emerging markets. This continued divergence in cyclical positions poses a global challenge, namely to find policies that help the S5 close their output gap without over-stimulating or over-tightening, through spillovers, economies that do not need it.
June 28, 2013
Issues in International Taxation and the Role of the IMF
Description: In the discussion of the Board work program on June 3, 2013, it was urged that the Fund be more present in current discussions of international tax issues. This note reviews key issues and initiatives in this area, and sets out a work plan that is focused on the Fund‘s mandate and macroeconomic expertise and that complements the work of other institutions, notably the OECD.