This Selected Issues paper analyzes Senegal’s real effective exchange rate (REER) and external competitiveness. A REER significantly above its equilibrium, as determined by economic fundamentals, can impede a country’s external competitiveness, calling for corrective macroeconomic measures....

This Selected Issues paper on Azerbaijan Republic reports that the government has made substantial progress in dealing with energy-related subsidies. The domestic market for oil products has been tightly regulated by the government since Azerbaijan gained independence. Azerbaijan is largely...

Energy prices in the GCC countries are low by international standards. These low prices have co-existed with rapid economic development in the region over the past 50 years, but the costs of this policy have also risen in terms of very high energy usage per capita. Providing energy at low prices...

Regulating energy prices has been a common practice around the world. The objective is, generally, to facilitate access to energy products, which are central to people's well-being and countries' economic development. However, energy price regulation also leads to wasteful and excessive...

In Senegal, average annual real GDP growth has been more than 5 percent since 1995, with inflation well below 3 percent. Senegal’s economic performance has been broadly satisfactory in 2000 and during the first quarter of 2001. Yet, despite this economic performance, poverty is still...

This Selected Issues paper assesses the extent to which accounting for losses of pubic enterprises (PEs), fiscal risks of public-private partnerships (PPPs), and government support to private enterprises would change Senegal’s fiscal deficit. It analyzes SENELEC’s (electricity company)...

Conceptual ambiguities and statistical weaknesses hamper the assessment of external competitiveness. The term competitiveness, while applied extensively, is often imprecisely defined, which can result in analytical errors and mistaken policy advice. Furthermore, aggregate statistical measures of...