In this paper we seek to answer the question of how the patterns of bilateral trade are altered by rising trade policy uncertainty (TPU). Specifically, we investigate whether geopolitical alignments between country pairs determine how bilateral trade flows react during periods of greater...

Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge to the world economy and the global financial system. This paper sets out to understand and quantify the impact of climate mitigation, with a focus on climate-related news, which represents an important information source that investors use to...

This paper presents the technical assistance report on investment funds and interconnectedness risks in Albania. The fund sector has been expanding and remains highly concentrated. Interconnectedness between funds and the rest of the financial system is limited. On the liability side, retail...

This paper discusses the technical note on Supervision and Disclosure of Climate-Related Risks for the Sweden Financial Sector Assessment Program. Swedish banks are in general mainly exposed to the effects of climate change through loans that are collateralized by real estate properties and...

This technical note assesses how large shocks from natural disasters are key source of vulnerabilities for public finances. It extends the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department calibration toolkit by developing a methodology to calibrate fiscal rules in the event of natural disaster shocks and the...

This paper uses an augmented gravity model framework to investigate the historical impact of infectious diseases on international tourism and develops an out-of-sample prediction model. Using bilateral tourism flows among 38,184 pairs of countries during the period 1995-2017, I compare the...

The economies of the Middle East and Central Asia proved resilient in 2022, despite a series of global shocks. However, this year-and potentially next-growth is expected to slow in the Middle East and North Africa as tight policies to fight inflation, reduce vulnerabilities, and rebuild buffers...

Growth in Asia and the Pacific is projected to increase this year to 4.6 percent, up from 3.8 percent in 2022, an upgrade of 0.3 percent from the October 2022 World Economic Outlook. This means the region would contribute over 70 percent to global growth. Asia's dynamism will be driven primarily...

Global inflation surged in 2022, driven by high gas price growth. With Russia being a key supplier of energy products, the start of the war in Ukraine has led to strong inflationary pressures in the euro area (EA), given the region's significant exposure to the Russian gas. The price shock has...