Policy Papers
2012
August 7, 2012
Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Risk
Description: This paper surveys that state of fiscal transparency in the wake of the current crisis and looks at what can be done to improve it. It examines the relationship between fiscal transparency and fiscal outcomes; reviews progress in promoting greater fiscal transparency over the past decade; considers the lessons of the recent crisis for existing fiscal transparency standards, practices, and monitoring arrangements; and makes a series of recommendations for renewing the global fiscal transparency effort in the wake of the crisis.
August 2, 2012
Eligibility to Use the Fund's Facilities for Concessional Financing - Republic of South Sudan
Description: Having become a Fund member in April 2012, South Sudan can now be considered for PRGT eligibility. In February 2012, the Executive Board reviewed the framework for eligibility to use the Fund’s concessional financing facilities and the list of PRGT-eligible countries. During that review, Directors agreed to maintain the PRGT eligibility framework with a modification of the population threshold used to define small countries. Directors also decided to keep the list of PRGT-eligible countries unchanged. Under the framework to assess PRGT eligibility, decisions on entry onto the list of PRGT-eligible countries can be adopted in the period between reviews. As noted in the staff paper for the 2012 review of PRGT eligibility, given the available data, it was expected that South Sudan would be proposed for entry onto the PRGT-eligibility list after it had joined the Fund. Accordingly, this paper proposes that South Sudan now be added to the list of PRGT-eligible countries.
August 2, 2012
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 Governance and Quota 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.
For the proposed quota increases under the 14th General Review of Quotas to become effective, members having not less than 70 percent of the total of quotas on November 5, 2010 must consent to the increases in their quotas and the proposed Board Reform Amendment must have entered into force. The proposed Board Reform Amendment enters into force once the Fund certifies that three-fifths of the members (i.e., currently 113 members) representing 85 percent of the total voting power have accepted the proposed amendment.
July 30, 2012
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 applicable grace period.
July 26, 2012
Review of Facilities for Low-Income Countries
Description: The 2009 reforms have broadly achieved their objective of closing gaps and creating a streamlined architecture of facilities that is better tailored to the diverse needs of LICs. Supported by the financing package to boost the PRGT’s lending capacity for 2009–14 and the accompanying doubling of access, the Fund was able to mount an effective response to LICs’ needs during the global financial crisis.
July 26, 2012
Review of Facilities for Low-Income Countries - Supplement 1
Description: This supplement aims to assess the economic impact of the Fund’s support through its facilities for low-income countries (LICs). It relies on two complementary econometric analyses: the first investigates the longer-term impact of Fund engagement—primarily through successive medium-term programs under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and its predecessors (and more recently the Policy Support Instrument (PSI))—on economic growth and a range of other indicators and socio-economic outcomes; the second focuses on the role of IMF shock-related financing—through augmentations of ECF arrangements and short-term and emergency financing instruments—on short-term macroeconomic performance. The empirical results shed some light on two channels through which different Fund facilities may have helped LICs respond to the global financial crisis—(i) by supporting a gradual buildup of macroeconomic buffers in the decades prior to the crisis and (ii) by providing liquidity support at the height of the crisis. The combination of strong pre-crisis buffers and crisis financing allowed LICs to pursue counter-cyclical policy responses that preserved spending and facilitated a rapid recovery.
July 24, 2012
Report to the Executive Boards of the IMF and the World Bank on the New CPSS-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures
Description: New and revised international standards for safe and efficient Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) were published in April 2012. The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) reviewed the existing sets of standards for FMIs and replaced them by one new set of Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures. Appendix I outlines the 24 new Principles for FMIs as well as the 5 responsibilities for authorities. FMIs facilitate the clearing, settlement, and recording of monetary and other financial transactions, such as payments, securities and derivatives contracts. The term FMI refers to payment systems (PSs) that are systemically important, central securities depositories (CSDs), securities settlement systems (SSSs), and central counterparties (CCPs). The revised standards also incorporate additional guidance for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives CCPs and trade repositories (TRs).
July 17, 2012
Key Trends in Implementation of the Fund’s Transparency Policy
Description: At the time of the 2005 review of the Fund’s transparency policy, it was agreed that information on key trends in implementation of the transparency policy would be circulated to the Board regularly, along with lists indicating the publication status of reports discussed by the Board. The set of tables provided in this report updates the last Key Trends with information on documents issued to the Board through December 2011.
July 17, 2012
Revisions to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standard - Information Note to the Executive Board
Description: The purpose of this note is to inform the Executive Board of the amendments made to the standard on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—the standard setter for AML/CFT—adopted on February 16, 2012 a revised standard, now entitled the “International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation: the FATF Recommendations.”
July 13, 2012
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 Governance and Quota 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.