Portugal’s 2008 Article IV Consultation highlights that Portugal’s financial system remains sound and well supervised. Portugal has accumulated substantial macroeconomic imbalances, and the policy challenge is to smooth the adjustment, containing domestic demand while increasing...

Jordan’s 2008 Article IV Consultation discusses the appropriate policy response to mounting fiscal and external vulnerabilities and higher inflation. Sharply higher world fuel and food prices led to a marked widening of the fiscal and external current account deficits and, more recently,...

This 2009 Article IV Consultation highlights that like other open economies, Korea was hard hit by the global financial crisis during the last quarter of 2008. The authorities responded with a timely and comprehensive set of financial market and macrostabilization measures. Executive Directors...

Pakistan’s economy continued to perform strongly owing to sound macroeconomic management and structural reform. Executive Directors advised that tight fiscal and monetary policies are required to reduce inflation and the external current account deficit while lessening pressures on real...

Romania’s GDP growth averaged more than 6½ percent per year from 2003 to 2008, as foreign direct investment and capital inflows helped finance high consumption and investment growth. The staff report for Romania’s request for a Stand-By Arrangement is also elaborated. Robust...

Robust GDP growth, declining unemployment, low and stable inflation, and a string of fiscal and current account surpluses -- it's a record to be envied. These outcomes in Canada owe much to sound macroeconomic policies, as well as to a favorable external environment. This book focuses on these...

Pakistan’s authorities have requested a 23-month Stand-By Arrangement for SDR 5.169 billion in support of their macroeconomic stabilization program. The authorities’ program envisages a tightening of fiscal and monetary policies to bring down inflation and reduce the external...

The literature on optimal fiscal policy finds that highly volatile real returns on government debt, for example through surprise inflation, have very low costs. However, policymakers are almost always very apprehensive of this option. The paper discusses evidence concerning features of...

This paper studies the implications of foreign currency deposits (FCDs) for international liquidity shortages in Pakistan. The analysis focuses on how the large volume of FCDs and the specific institutional characteristics of those deposits have made the Pakistan economy highly vulnerable to...