Paraguay’s Fifth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria are discussed. The overall fiscal position remains in surplus, the exchange rate weakened slightly with respect to the U.S. dollar, but considerably with respect to the Brazilian real,...

This 2004 Article IV Consultation highlights that six years after the 1998 financial crisis, Ukraine continues to recover strongly. In 2003, real GDP grew by 9.4 percent, despite a poor harvest, and reached 13.5 percent through July 2004. Growth in 2003–04 has been prompted by favorable...

Until recently, Croatia's economic performance was the envy of many countries in transition: a successful stabilization effort in late 1993 was followed by virtual price stability and real GDP growth of 6 percent a year during 1994–97. Monetary tightening, the weak economy, and a...

The staff report summarizes the financial sector issues of Tanzania. It assesses the overall stability and development issues, and provides an overview of the financial system highlighting its soundness and vulnerabilities. It analyzes risk management, regulation and supervision, and the...

The key policy challenge for Turkey in the years ahead will be to enhance and consolidate the advances made since the nation’s 2000-01 economic crisis. Higher growth could reduce unemployment and raise living standards toward European Union levels. This paper reviews Turkey’s...

The staff paper for the Third Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement on Paraguay focuses on the macroeconomic framework and medium-term scenario, risks, and capacity to repay the IMF. There have been delays in implementing some structural measures, especially related to the approval of banking...

Despite far-reaching banking sector reforms and a prolonged period of macroeconomic stability and strong economic growth, financial intermediation in Armenia has lagged behind other transition countries, and interest rate spreads have remained higher than in most Central and Eastern European...

This paper assesses the degree of bank competition and discusses efficiency with regard to banks' financial intermediation in Ghana. By applying panel data to variables derived from a theoretical model, we find evidence for a noncompetitive market structure in the Ghanaian banking system, which...

The financial system remains vulnerable to weak governance in smaller banks and also to weaknesses in banks’ balance sheets. Banking is characterized by high real interest rates, large spreads, and a limited appetite for lending. Stress tests indicate that the banking system is relatively...

The Financial System Stability Assessment of Mauritius assesses the standards and codes and the potential risks and vulnerabilities of the financial system. It summarizes the assessments of the standards and codes on the Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision, systemically...