This 2007 Article IV Consultation highlights that Tonga’s real GDP growth is estimated to turn negative in FY06/07, declining by 3½ percent. The economy will continue to be subject to uncertainty and shocks. While economic growth should return to positive, albeit low, levels in the...

This 2008 Article IV Consultation highlights that Tonga’s economy has shown resilience in the aftermath of the November 2006 riots and is now on a path to recovery. The key factor underpinning this resilience has been private investment. Donor-supported government reconstruction loans are...

Honduras’s request for a Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and Interim Assistance Under the Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries is discussed. The social consultation has allowed the government to implement a vital reform of public...

The staff report for the 2005 Article IV Consultation on the Central African Republic (CAR) highlights economic developments and performance. Revenue performance was disappointing, and there were sizable expenditure overruns, particularly on the wage bill. The authorities and IMF staff agreed on...

This paper examines Honduras’s 2005 Article IV Consultation and Second Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. In the period 1960–2000, output growth in Honduras ranked among the lowest in the region. During the 1990s, when growth recovered in the rest of Central...

We consider a model where a given number of firms decide on a pollution-reducing production technology, and then hire workers who subsequently form a monopoly union which sets the wage. We study the possibility of "double dividents", i.e. simultaneous reduction in pollution and increases in...

In recent years, the OECD has measured the structural rate of unemployment by an indicator called the Non-Accelerating Wage Rate of Unemployment. The NAWRU-indicator is an important element in the policy analysis of the OECD. The rise in the estimated NAWRUs is also taken as evidence that Nordic...

The regional unemployment elasticity of annual earnings for Non-OECD immigrants is found to be more than three times larger than for natives, using micro data covering all immigrants in Norway in 1990 and a random sample of natives. The decline in relative earnings of Non-OECD immigrants from...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix analyzes developments in the domestic economy of Uzbekistan. The paper highlights that after declining by 17½ percent during 1992–94, real GDP fell by only about 1 percent in 1995. The moderation in the output decline was due in part...