This paper presents report on a number of countries in Asia that have made substantial use of agency credits, including the quasi-concessional financing available through mixed credit s. Through their willingness to grant comprehensive relief on a case-by-case basis, official creditors have...

The paper studies empirically fiscal policies around elections in 35 developing countries. It finds that governments try to improve their reelection prospects with the help of expansionary expenditure policies. Rising fiscal deficits before elections are followed by fiscal consolidation...

This study surveys recent trends in private market financing for developing countries. In addition to examining developments in flows to developing countries through banking and securites markets, it analyzes the institutional and regulatory framework for developing country finance,...

This chapter discusses the changes that have taken place in the underlying structural relationships determining government expenditures between 1975 and 1986. The paper describes the methodological problems in analyzing the determinants of government expenditure patterns, and the issues involved...

This paper examines the types of market-related hedging instruments that could potentially be useful to indebted developing countries as they seek to manage the financial risks created by variability of the prices of external assets and commodities. The paper reviews the variability in interest...

This paper describes the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and suggests that it should enable HIPCs to exit from the debt-rescheduling process. It argues that implementation of the Initiative should eliminate debt as an impediment to economic development and growth and enable...

This paper focuses on principles and various aspects of debt reduction and economic activity. The paper analyzes the effect of debt and debt-service reduction on the contractual and market values of a country's debt and also describes the IMF staff's preliminary attempts to describe and quantify...

This paper analyzes the IMF’s Enhanced Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, which provides debt relief for low-income countries. The paper highlights that countries affected by the debt crisis of the 1980s received concerted support from the international financial community in the...

This paper reviews and analyzes broad developments and considers specific policy measures to foster saving. The chapter also describes trends in national saving rates of industrial countries in recent years and briefly discusses the prospects over the medium term. The paper also discusses the...