Jamaica was hit hard by the pandemic. An early lockdown in the Spring of 2020 helped contain the number of Covid-19 cases but the impact on the economy was severe, with real GDP shrinking by 10 percent. To counter the social and economic effects of the pandemic, the government temporarily...

Dominica has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with an estimated decline in GDP of 11 percent in 2020 underpinned by a sharp reduction in tourism receipts that affected connected sectors and by lockdown measures to limit virus contagion. The output decline was contained by health spending,...

The topics discussed in this report are tax regimes for small taxpayers (Chapter II) and the tax treatment of special economic zones (Chapter III). Although these aspects of the tax system have little direct effect on public finances, they affect many people and how those people make decisions...

The pandemic interrupted ten years of growth, but El Salvador is rebounding quickly. Robust external demand, resilient remittances, and a sound management of the pandemic-with the help of a disbursement under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) (SDR287.2 million or USD 389 million) approved in...

Uruguay entered the pandemic with solid institutions and social cohesion but growing macroeconomic imbalances-especially slow economic growth and weak public finances-as the end of the last commodity price boom in 2014 uncovered structural weaknesses. A new government came to power in March 2020...

Suriname faces systemic fiscal and external imbalances as a result of many years of economic mismanagement. Usable foreign reserves were depleted and, in the absence of other sources of budget financing, fiscal deficits were monetized. Inflation has, as a result, surged and there has been a...

On June 20, 2018, the Executive Board approved the largest stand-by arrangement in the Fund's history, in support of Argentina's 2018-21 economic program. After an augmentation in October 2018, access under the arrangement amounted to USD 57 billion (1,227 percent of Argentina's IMF quota). The...

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes-Data Module (Data ROSC) updates assessments conducted in 2010 and 2015. The updated assessments are based on the May 2012 version of the IMF's Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF) and cover the national accounts, government finance, and...

While Barbados has been making good progress in implementing its Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan to restore fiscal and debt sustainability, rebuild reserves, and increase growth, it continues to face major challenges owing to the global pandemic. International reserves have...