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...

The political and security environment remains uncertain in Libya. Libya faces the challenges of stabilizing the economy and responding to the aspirations of the revolution. The near-term outlook is favorable, but there are significant risks. The overarching policy objective should be to foster...

Lack of coordination between the monetary and fiscal authorities will result in inferior overall economic performance. This paper studies the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies and its effect on the economic performance by using al cointegration tests in the case of Euro Area....

Der Bericht analysiert den Zusammenhang zwischen Finanz- und Geldpolitik im Hinblick auf die Schaffung oder Vernichtung von Arbeitsplätzen. Aus internationaler Erfahrung unterscheidet man zwischen drei Arten des Policy-Mix. Strenge Arbeitsteilung zwischen Fiskal- und Geldpolitik, der Keynessche...

Countries vary widely with respect to the share of government spending on health, a metric that can serve as a proxy for the extent to which health is prioritized by governments. World Health Organization (WHO) data estimate that, in 2011, health's share of aggregate government expenditure in...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether efforts to eliminate the budget deficits in Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, as it has been suggested by Troika (European Commission, International Monetary Fund, and European Central Bank), will delay the economic growth of these...

The staff report for the 2007 Article IV Consultation on Sri Lanka highlights economic growth development and performance. Rising inflation, a high current account deficit, and low unemployment rate indicate that the economy may be operating at full capacity. High stock of public debt, rising...

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, ranking 146 out of 177 on the United Nations Human Development Index. The country has one of the lowest tax revenue-to-GDP ratios in the world (10.1 percent in 2005). To address these challenges, the authorities are requesting a...