This note analyzes the medium- and long-term prospects of the hydrocarbon sector as a source of growth. Substantial hydrocarbon and financial reserves implies a sizable upward shift in the sustainable expenditure path. Rather than suggesting a specific fiscal rule, four simple alternatives are...

Russia’s large oil and gas reserves play a key role in its economic development. As with many other large oil exporters, Russia’s energy wealth is also posing numerous challenges to macroeconomic management. Although fiscal policy has saved a large part of the oil windfall in the...

This paper studies the effects of demand and supply shocks in the global crude oil market on several measures of countries' external balance, including the oil and non-oil trade balances, the current account, and changes in net foreign assets (NFA) during 1975-2004. We explicitly take a global...

We examine the effects of oil rents on corruption and state stability exploiting the exogenous within-country variation of a new measure of oil rents for a panel of 31 oil-exporting countries during the period 1992 to 2005. We find that an increase in oil rents significantly increases...

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and the Caucasus and Central Asia have the highest output volatility in the world. Fiscal policy is a powerful tool that can help dampen the business cycles. This paper analyzes the cyclical properties of fiscal policy in the region during the...

This Selected Issues paper on Algeria reports that the authorities have relied on an expansionary fiscal stance to stimulate growth and employment, but structural reforms have virtually stalled. Although the economy has recorded increasing growth, the nonhydrocarbon sector remains small and...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes economic performance of Ecuador under dollarization. The paper reviews the principal trade-offs normally associated with official dollarization, and their specific relevance to Ecuador. It discusses Ecuador’s performance under the dollarization regime,...

Statistical data and issues are discussed in this paper. Mauritania reached the completion point under the enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. In July 2004, a new economic team took actions to tighten fiscal and monetary policies. The authorities intend to adopt sound...

The paper employs a heuristic comparative approach suggested by Ismail (2009) to search for evidence of Dutch disease in oil-rich countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). While these countries have benefitted from high international oil prices in recent years,...

Non-oil growth in the CFA oil exporting countries has been lackluster despite their great natural resource wealth. In this paper we study the key determinants of non-oil growth and explore to what extent these countries differ from countries with comparable levels of development that do not...