Recent indicators suggest that activity in the world economy is strengthening more rapidly than projected by the staff six months ago. This is especially true of the United States, but the staff has also revised upward its growth projections for most other industrial countries-in the case of...

This paper is based on an internal report prepared by the IMF staff in connection with the application of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (Czechoslovakia) for membership in the IMF. The paper surveys the economic system that had developed up to the time of the reforms begun in 1987 and...