The attached Joint Staff Advisory Note (JSAN) on the Implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Guinea, prepared jointly by the staffs of the World Bank and the IMF, was distributed with the member country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to the Executive Boards...

Lebanon is expected to have gas resources in its Mediterranean basin, and these could turn the country into a natural gas producer over the next decade. Lebanon’s economy and institutions will thus need to adapt to the challenges and opportunities that such change will bring. In this...

Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience...

This staff report for Zimbabwe highlights the key macroeconomic challenges of taking steps to improve fiscal and external sustainability and increase financial sector stability. Zimbabwe has made good progress in restoring macroeconomic stability since the end of hyperinflation in 2009, but the...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The first review discussions took place in a context of heightened geopolitical tensions and deepening economic crisis. Intensification of the conflict in the East and escalation of the gas dispute with Gazprom, two of the key risks identified at the time of the program...

Economic performance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has improved markedly. To safeguard the fiscal position, the government has to rigorously monitor budget execution and reduce nondiscretionary spending. The current monetary and floating exchange rate regime should be maintained....

This paper discusses Second National Poverty Reduction Strategy II (NPRS-II) (2012–2016) for Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. A comparison of the results of the 2000 and 2010 poverty profile, based on the average income method, shows that there was progress in reducing poverty,...

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.

The pace of trade reforms waned from the mid-2000s as protectionist sentiment began to increase. With the onset of the global financial crisis, reform progress not only halted but began to reverse. As we show in this note, new trade restrictions have had—in the limited products they...