Over the past two years, economic activity in Palau has been slowed. Executive Directors welcomed the authorities’ disciplined policies, strong financial sector legislation, and prudent management of foreign grants. They encouraged the authorities to build a strong fiscal consolidation...

EU Member countries have shown different degrees of ambition to reach a budget position of "close to balance or in surplus". Differences in ambition can only partly be explained by the relative size of cyclical safety mar­gins or differences in the number of votes in the ECOFIN Council. It is...

During the pandemic, African banks rebalanced their portfolio towards sovereign assets, and crowding out of credit to private sector intensified. Policy support, however, averted a credit crunch. The increase in public debt across Africa due to the COVID-19 crisis intensified crowding out of...

This paper focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Fourth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Modification and Waivers of Applicability of Performance Criteria. Despite a challenging environment, steady progress has been made in meeting program objectives. All end-June 2013...