This Selected Issues paper assesses The Gambia’s external competitiveness by reviewing developments in several indicators, ranging from exchange rate-based indices to survey-based assessments of the investment climate. The paper reviews the evolution of several multilateral and bilateral...

India’s 2005 Article IV Consultation reports that the government’s medium-term fiscal strategy is broadly appropriate, and faster implementation is crucial for its economy. India’s growth spurt provides a golden opportunity to fast-forward the government’s structural...

This paper reviews economic stabilization and growth in Portugal during the 1970s. Following a decade of rapid growth with external equilibrium, the Portuguese economy in the early 1970s suffered a series of major shocks. The paper highlights that the problem of managing economic growth with a...

This 2005 Article IV Consultation highlights that the GDP growth in Japan slowed unexpectedly in the second quarter of 2004, after several quarters of above-trend growth. For the full year, GDP rose by 2.6 percent, well below expectations. A significant part of the shortfall reflected a shift to...

Bradford DeLong and Dani Rodrik have argued that reforms in India cannot be credited with higher growth because the growth rate crossed the 5 percent mark in the 1980s, well before the launch of the July 1991 reforms. This is a wrong reading of the Indian experience for two reasons. First,...

Iran's 2005 Article IV Consultation highlights Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (FFYDP) and the Twenty-Year Vision. The country's real GDP growth reached 5½ percent a year on average, unemployment declined, and macroeconomic indicators improved significantly, supported by favorable oil...

The staff report for the 2006 Article IV Consultation on Botswana highlights economic developments and monetary and exchange rate policy. Botswana’s growth has been fueled by continued increases in diamond production; and real diamond output is projected to level off, and then decline...

The staff report for the 2007 Article IV Consultation highlights the Russian Federation’s long-term perspective, economic developments, and macroeconomic policies. Russia’s economic growth remains robust. High oil prices and sound fiscal policy underlie Russia’s long spell...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix on Bhutan underlie the macroeconomic impact of Tala, rapid private sector credit growth, and macroeconomic risks. In Bhutan, as the bulk of Tala-related flows go through the government accounts, this requires an appropriate fiscal stance and...

This paper establishes that output volatility and the size of output drops have declined across all countries over the past three decades, but remain considerably higher in developing countries than in industrial countries. The paper employs a Bayesian latent dynamic factor model to decompose...