This paper discusses Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Third Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Waiver of Applicability of a Performance Criterion. Financial sector indicators through end-March 2013 suggest that the banking system remains profitable and adequately capitalized at...

This paper focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Fourth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Modification and Waivers of Applicability of Performance Criteria. Despite a challenging environment, steady progress has been made in meeting program objectives. All end-June 2013...

The economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is strongly connected to Europe through trade and financial channels, continues to pay a high price for the tough conditions in the area. The paper discuss that, following low demand in its trading partners, exports slumped in 2012 by 7.5 percent,...

Labor markets in the Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia) are characterized by some of the highest unemployment and low employment rates in Europe. We analyze the poor labor market outcomes in these countries by comparison with the...

This paper discusses Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Fifth Review Under the Stand-by Arrangement and Requests for Waivers of Applicability and Extension and Augmentation of the Arrangement. Policy implementation remains strong despite a challenging environment. All end-September 2013 performance...

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) challenge is to cope with the adverse economic environment and prepare the ground for achieving sustainable export-led economic growth, raising living standards, and making progress toward EU accession. In addition to fiscal consolidation, this will require...

This paper discusses Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Sixth and Seventh Reviews Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Requests for Augmentation of Access and Modification of Performance Criteria (PC). Program performance became more uneven in late 2013 and early 2014, reflecting both economic...

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (Bah) economy started to lose steam in early 2012 as growth slowed in Europe. Intensification of the euro area crisis further affected Bin's growth outlook. However, measures such as limiting the expenditure at the central government level and targeting overall...

This annual progress report reviews Burkina Faso’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). The regional integration dynamics was considered as an action variable that allowed Burkina Faso to better insert itself into the global economy. The major quantitative objectives of the revised...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the surprising strength of remittances in Bangladesh and other countries in South Asia and the Philippines in 2009. The empirical analysis suggests that the continued strong growth of remittances in these countries is related to the resilience of non-oil GDP...