Spain's participation in European integration has strengthened its policymaking credibility and created an enviroment conducive to sustainable economic growth. Over the last decade, Spain has seen improvements in inflation, output, employment, and its balance of payments, and it has...

Regional trade arrangements have recently attracted growing interest, as existing schemes are either being extended or revived and new groupings are being formed. This study reviews recent initiatives and the experience with regional integration in industrial and developing countries and...

This Selected Issues paper compares the growth performance of Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) countries with that of comparative countries. During the last two decades, the average growth of CEMAC countries has been slower than the sub-Saharan African average. The results...

The countries in the East African Community (EAC) are among the fastest growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The EAC countries are making significant progress toward financial integration, including harmonization of supervisory arrangements and practices and the modernization of monetary...

The regional strategy has helped to avert an immediate crisis but continues to face headwinds: two countries have yet to enter financing arrangements with the Fund: regional reserves have underperformed despite higher-than-projected oil prices; the projected recovery of non-oil growth has still...