This paper focuses on Pakistan’s 2004 Article IV Consultation, Ninth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), and Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria (PCs). Implementation of the PRGF program in Pakistan remains broadly on track....

This paper examines Armenia’s 2004 Article IV Consultation, Sixth Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, and Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria. Armenia’s strong economic performance has been continuing in 2004. In January–September, the year-over-year rate of GDP...

This 2004 Article IV Consultation highlights that during the first four years of the Third Five-Year Development Plan (2000/01–2003/04), Iran’s real GDP grew by 5.6 percent on average. The external current account was in surplus, external debt was reduced to a very low level, international...

The success of Nigeria’s reforms brings new policy challenges for preserving and building on the reform gains. The immediate challenge is to enshrine a fiscal institution that ensures that fiscal policy is consistent with macroeconomic stability. Nigeria’s integration into the global economy...

Sound policies and favorable external conditions have led to a strong economic recovery, but important challenges lie ahead. Uruguay’s near-term economic prospects are generally favorable. The main short-term challenge is rising inflation in the wake of vigorous growth and capital inflows. The...

The Zambian economy has performed well owing to its strong macroeconomic policies, high copper export prices, and extensive debt relief. Executive Directors encouraged the authorities to reduce poverty and attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under the Fifth National Development Plan...

This paper examines Honduras’s 2005 Article IV Consultation and Second Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. In the period 1960–2000, output growth in Honduras ranked among the lowest in the region. During the 1990s, when growth recovered in the rest of Central America, in...

Introduction -- The increasing financialisation of everything? -- Financialisation: how and why is it happening? -- The relationship between the virtual and the material -- Frontiers of accumulation and ecology -- Illicit financial flows and exemptions from sovereignty -- The financialisation of...

Kosovo was placed under temporary UN administration in 1999, and a final political settlement remains pending. Since that time, however, the province has developed the instruments and institutions necessary to formulate and implement an independent economic policy. This paper provides an...

This book brings together recent IMF research on how the Middle East and North African countries are grappling with various macroeconomic challenges. It rigorously analyzes policy alternatives for a range of relevant topics, including the implications of changing demographic trends for growth...