KEY ISSUES Context. Macroeconomic and financial stability has been maintained despite the difficult environment globally—especially in neighboring Greece—and recent domestic discord, but growth remains tepid and unemployment high. Ambitious (and politically challenging) reforms are needed to...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Stand-By Arrangement. A 20-month SBA in an amount of SDR 90.968 million (154 percent of quota) was approved by the Executive Board on April 27, 2012, and the first purchase of SDR 4.251 million was made available following the Board meeting (Country Report 12/100). The second...

KEY ISSUES Context: Economic activity has accelerated, in part thanks to pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies. With domestic demand stronger, the current account deficit is widening again from a high level, and inflation remains well above target. Challenges: On current policies, Turkey can only...

Staff Report for the 2012 Article IV consultation, prepared by a staff team of the IMF, following discussions that ended on October 2, with the officials of Croatia on economic developments and policies. Based on information available at the time of these discussions, the staff report was...

This Selected Issues paper presents a comparison on public expenditure of Austria and other countries. In the past decade, Austria's government expenditure growth has been very steady, thus avoiding the boom-bust pattern of some other European countries. However, expenditure levels are...

The Selected Issues paper investigates options for improving the efficiency of the Italian judicial system and closing the regional performance gap. Better courts would bring about macroeconomic benefits, including increased employment opportunities, and higher productivity, investment, and...