Low-income countries (LICs) face significant challenges in meeting their development objectives while maintaining a sustainable debt position. The international community's main answer to this dilemma has been to promote recourse to concessional external resources. The Fund's recommendations to...

The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and...

Analyses of debt relief that focus on the behavior of debtors and existing creditors understate the incentives for collective action by creditors. It is well known that debt relief could benefit existing creditors by providing incentives for domestic investment by residents of debtor countries....

Almost all formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jamaica have access to checking or saving accounts, but the financial sector is scarcely used to finance their investments. The lack of funding for the SME sector, or its high cost, has a negative impact on entrepreneurship and business...

Two years ago, citizens in the Arab world—fired by their ideals and visions of a better life—ignited a social movement that inspired people around the globe. In Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen—the so-called Arab countries in transition—people embraced change, ushering...

This paper presents an assessment of Hungary’s antimoney laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism measures. The Hungarian authorities have made significant progress in strengthening their AML regime. The most important step has been the passage of a revised AML Act of 2003,...

In recent years, the IMF has become deeply involved in the international movement to prevent the abuse of financial systems and to protect and enhance the integrity of the international financial system. The IMF’s involvement has been expanded beyond anti-money-laundering efforts to include...

Full text also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Despite signs of recovery and resilience in some economies, global growth continues to disappoint, with the expected pick-up driven primarily by emerging markets. This persistent underperformance has exposed...