The staff report for the 2013 Article IV Consultation on Guinea-Bissau highlights the economic development and policies. Guinea-Bissau’s medium-term challenges are to diversify its economy, reduce widespread poverty, and generate employment opportunities. Recurrent internal conflicts have...

Der Finanzrahmen für die Programmperiode 2007 bis 2013 steht angesichts knapper Haushaltskassen weiterhin in der öffentlichen Debatte. Bei dieser Diskussion sollte nicht allein das Ausgabenvolumen und hierbei insbesondere das Volumen der Strukturförderung im Mittelpunkt stehen. Auch auf der...

Staff Discussion Notes showcase the latest policy-related analysis and research being developed by individual IMF staff and are published to elicit comment and to further debate. These papers are generally brief and written in nontechnical language, and so are aimed at a broad audience...

This Selected Issues paper examines application of fiscal framework alternatives to the case of Peru. Although growth has been at historical highs over the last decade, Peru still has an important infrastructure gap and a quarter of its population still lives in poverty. This paper applies...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes medium-term fiscal sustainability in Trinidad and Tobago. The paper focuses on the challenge of distributing the nonrenewable resource wealth across generations. Its recommendations are geared toward the goal of intergenerational distribution and therefore...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the properties of the fiscal surplus rule, a key pillar of Chile’s macroeconomic framework. The findings suggest that the rule is near the volatility-minimizing efficiency frontier. The paper assesses the vulnerability of the Chilean banking system to...

This study was carried out in association with an FAD technical assistance mission on public financial management issues. It focuses on transparency aspects of fiscal management reforms reviewed by that mission as well as implementation of key report on observance of standards and codes...

This 2007 Article IV Consultation highlights that Azerbaijan’s real GDP growth accelerated to 31 percent in 2006, driven by rapidly increasing oil production and transportation. Non-oil real GDP, excluding oil and gas transportation, grew by about 8 percent, as nontradable sectors...

The three-point VAT increase is part of a package in which unemployment payroll taxes will be reduced. Risks to the recovery are balanced but the range of forecasts for 2007 is unusually wide. The priority for Germany is to transmit its external strength to the domestic economy, thus further...