This paper reviews Liberia’s performance under the staff-monitored program (SMP) through December 2007, and proposes a three-year program to be supported by the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) once Liberia’s arrears to the IMF have...

We present a stylized real model of the Chinese economy with the objective of explaining two features: (1) domestic production is highly competitive in the sense that an accumulation of capital that raises the marginal product of labor elicits increases in employment and output rather than only...

The staff report for Rwanda’s combined 2008 Article IV Consultation, Fifth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, and Request for Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion is examined. Sound macroeconomic and structural policies...

Algeria’s external position has strengthened. Algeria’s encouraging economic performances in recent years, reflecting market-oriented reforms and prudent macroeconomic policies in a favorable external environment, are discussed. The main challenges faced by Algeria are to ensure...

The spillovers from the U.S. economy to Canada have been assessed. It uses structural vector autoregressions to analyze the role of financial linkages in real and financial spillovers from the United States to Canada. The implications of Canada’s predictable price level have been...

This Selected Issues paper for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is examined. Real GDP growth accelerated to 5 percent in 2007 and 6 percent in the first half of 2008, from its historical average of about 3 percent. Increased investment, partly financed by FDI, is the main driver...

This 2008 Article IV Consultation highlights that Sweden’s economy has performed well, but is sensitive to global demand. The activity is now moderating. Exports have benefited from sound competitiveness, but euro area and U.S. slowing is causing them to decelerate. Private consumption...

This Selected Issues Paper and Statistical Appendix for Niger are discussed. The Nigerien economic outlook has been improving since 1999. After a long period of decline in per capita income, growth accelerated through 2007, attaining an annual average of 4 percent, or about 1 percent in per...

We propose a new Financial Condition Index (FCI) for Asian economies based on two different methodologies: a VAR model and a Dynamic Factor Model. The paper shows that this index has predictive power in forecasting GDP growth and may be thus used as a leading indicator. Based on the FCI,...