This paper discusses the progress report on the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) for Nigeria. The NEEDS 2004–07 is Nigeria’s reform based medium-term plan for economic recovery, growth, and development. Fiscal and monetary policies have been carefully...

Fiscal deficits and the public debt has grown throughout much of the postwar period in most industrialized countries under the pressure of rising public expenditure, a trend that has begun to reverse after 1992. A number of studies argue that fiscal consolidation in association with expenditure...

Forward-looking behavior on the part of the monetary authority leads least squares estimates to understate the true growth consequences of monetary policy interventions. We present instrumental variables estimates of the impact of interest rates on real output growth for several European...

Market reaction to a change in official interest rates will depend on the extent to which the change is anticipated, and on how it is interpreted as a signal of future policy. In this paper, a technique is developed to separate the anticipated and unanticipated components of such changes and is...

This Selected Issues paper describes the three phases of IMF engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with a view to drawing lessons that could prove useful in identifying objectives and policies for a medium-term program that could be supported through a successor Poverty Reduction...

This Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix paper assesses Romania’s external competitiveness by reviewing recent developments in a range of standard indicators and estimating equilibrium real exchange rates. The results suggest that, although Romania’s historical cost advantage vis-à-vis...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the impact of Mexico’s energy reform on hydrocarbons production. These reforms aim to increase oil and gas production by eliminating the state oil company’s (PEMEX) monopoly on exploration and production of hydrocarbons, while retaining the prime...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.