This technical note discusses key findings of the assessment of Insurance Core Principles (ICP) for the reinsurance industry for Switzerland. It reveals that the Swiss reinsurance market is dominated by three large players with a strong international presence. The reinsurance industry comprises...

The strategy adopted by Benin to strengthen its macroeconomic stability and promote private-investment-led growth has been detailed in the note. The statistical data on gross domestic product by sector of origin at current prices and at constant supply, production and producer prices of cotton,...

The Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) countries financial system has increasingly come under stress particularly through weakly supervised nonbank and offshore financial sectors with knock-on effects to domestic banks. The staff report focuses on ECCU’s 2009 discussion on common...

This paper presents empirical evidence on the effects of achieving investment grade on borrowing costs for the sovereign and the private sector. This study provides background information on sovereign credit ratings and compares Panama’s key macroeconomic and institutional characteristics...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the empirical relationship between corporate leverage—and other indicators of financial health—and investment in Israel, using dynamic panel data techniques. The results suggest that weak balance sheets may well have contributed to the investment...

The Chinese authorities welcomed the spillover analysis, noting that their policies have important global spillover effects. The note also discusses China’s evolving role in global trade, impact of rebalancing on the supply chain, estimating China’s spillovers, elasticities...

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.

This paper addresses the macroeconomic impact of international financial integration. I first provide empirical evidence that foreign banking penetration can be associated with a contraction of banking credit, especially in countries with poor credit markets. Second I present a model in which...

Using a large panel of about 6,946 French manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the effect of monetary policy from 1990 to 1999 on investment through the cost of capital and the cash-flow channels. We compare several specifications of the neo-classical demand for capital, taking into...