The creation, in 1994, of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) customs union was a major step in the regional integration process in central Africa. The implementation of the agreed regime by the member countries, however, has remained unsatisfactory. A 2002–03...

The government of Rwanda has recognized that economic development in most areas would have to be the responsibility of the private sector (particularly since military and civil service employment would be reduced), but that the public sector could still have a role in promoting economic equality...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes recent economic developments and policies in Madagascar. Real GDP growth in 2001 was 6 percent, continuing the trend of sustained increase in per capita real GDP that began during the period 1997–2000. The secondary and tertiary sectors were the main...

The statistical data on gross domestic product, cost structure of vanilla exports, production of meat, fish, and dairy products, consumer price index, and consolidated government financial operations of Comoros have been presented in this paper. The wage bill developments, consolidated net...

This paper reviews economic developments in Guinea during 1990–95. In 1995, expectations arising from the new discoveries of sizable oil reserves and double-digit growth in the non-oil economy—led by the timber industry—dominated economic developments. However, the fiscal...

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.

The Selected Issues paper for the Union of the Comoros describes an assessment of the external competitiveness. Comoros has been hard hit by negative terms-of-trade shocks that have weakened the external position. A trend decline in the world price of vanilla, its main export, has occurred...

The Mauritian economy showed strong performance owing to its sound macroeconomic policies. Executive Directors emphasized the need to remain competitive and address the growing unemployment problem. They commended the efforts to support the developments in financial services, free port...

This Selected Issues paper on Bangladesh underlies the export performance of readymade garment industry and inflation dynamics. Bangladesh has demonstrated that it is highly competitive in the world’s major garment markets. Inflation inertia, monetary factors, and exchange rate...

This report examines recent economic developments and regional policy issues in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Although progress has been achieved on the integration front since 1994, including the establishment of a customs union and the creation of the economic union,...