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...

This paper discusses Sierra Leone’s Request for a Three-Year Arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Sierra Leone has made considerable progress during the last PRGF-supported program toward macroeconomic stability. Macroeconomic performance was generally...

This paper discusses key findings of the Ex Post Assessment of Longer-Term Program Engagement for Mongolia. The paper assesses Mongolia’s progress in implementing its transition to a market economy, economic stabilization, and reform programs supported by the IMF during 1991–2004,...

This paper assesses Nicaragua’s 2002 Article IV Consultation and Requests for a Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) and for Interim Assistance Under the Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). A key program objective is...

The staff report for the 2004 Article IV Consultation on Jordan highlights economic developments and policies. General sales tax collections increased strongly boosted by high import growth and improved revenue administration. The government has embarked on a substantial improvement of the...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic underlies debt sustainability analysis. Sensitivity analysis reveals that if the pace of economic reforms falters, the debt burden—high even in the baseline case—could become...

This paper analyzes the impact of decentralization on overall fiscal performance in the European Union, taking into account fiscal institutional arrangements. We find that spending decentralization has been associated with sizably better fiscal performance, especially when transfer dependency of...

In many countries the decentralization of spending responsibilities has outpaced the decentralization of revenue powers. Sub-national governments have then to rely on transfers from the center and borrowing to finance their spending. When this occurs, we find that the overall fiscal deficit...

São Tomé and Príncipe is very open and highly depends on imports resulting in high indirect tax revenue. At the same time, the production and export base are very narrow, leaving the authorities with a small domestic tax base. For these reasons, the country compares unfavorably with...

Madagascar showed strong economic growth and low inflation under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) Arrangement. Executive Directors commended these developments, and stressed the need to restore fiscal discipline, improve governance, strengthen the business climate to encourage...