The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, launched in 1999 by the IMF and the World Bank, was the first coordinated effort by the international financial community to reduce the foreign debt of the world’s poorest countries. It was based on the theory that economic growth in...

This Selected Issues paper analyzes the developments and determinants of inflation in Romania, and reviews the salient trends in public finance. The study describes the monetary policy issues and the improvements required to clean up the financial sector. The paper chronicles the...

The global economic recovery is progressing better than expected, but the speed of recovery varies, as outlined in the April 2010 World Economic Outlook. Some countries, notably in Asia, are off to a strong start, but growth in others is constrained by lasting damage to the financial sector and...

This study, another in the series focusing on special issues in transition, reviews the experience of output decline and recovery in the 25 countries of eastern and central Europe and the Baltics, Russia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Although these countries began the process...

The economic slowdown in sub-Saharan Africa looks set to be mercifully brief. Recovery is now under way across the region. The region's relative resilience during this global recession, compared with previous global downturns, owes much to the health of its economies and the strengthening of...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix summarizes the factors explaining Vanuatu’s recent growth performance, which has weakened since the mid-1990s. The paper highlights that Vanuatu’s annual rate of growth averaged 3⁄4 percent during 1997–2001, compared with 43⁄4 percent...

Over the last decade, GDP growth in emerging Asia was roughly twice as fast as average world growth. The IMF’s Global Economy Model (GEM) is used to estimate the impact that emerging Asia’s growth differential has had on Australia. The simulation analysis, which replicates some key features...

What accounts for variations in FDI flows from advanced to developing countries? How have FDI inflows explained cross-country growth experiences? In this paper we tackle both these questions empirically for a large sample of middle and low-income countries. Two key results emerge: (i) lower...

This book analyzes the importance for Asia of rebalancing its growth model toward domestic demand, and what such a rebalancing would entail. The nature of the challenge differs across regional economies, as some, like China, need to raise private consumption while others, like the ASEAN...

Focusing on the nexus between economic growth and buildup of external vulnerabilities, this paper provides a systematic account of different growth strategies followed in Central and Eastern Europe in 2000-08 and then uses this growth diagnostics to derive implications for the post-crisis...