Italy’s 2008 Article IV Consultation describes the country's economic developments and policies. Output has been projected to contract by about ½ percent in 2008 and 1 percent in 2009, with risks tilted to the downside, linked to a further slowing of global growth and falling consumer...

This report provides an assessment of fiscal transparency practices in Greece in relation to the requirements of the IMF Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency. The assessment reveals that Greece has made progress, in recent years, in meeting the requirements of the fiscal transparency...

Private investment is the principal transmission channel through which fiscal policy affects growth in high-income countries. In low-income countries, governance and also other considerations suggest that the primary channel is factor productivity. Empirical results reported in this paper...

This paper employs several econometric techniques to estimate the Armenian output gap. The findings indicate that the output gap is significantly positive in 2007 and 2008 and decreased dramatically in 2009. The paper uses these results to estimate a New Keynesian Phillips curve for Armenia,...

This staff report for the Request for Stand-By Arrangement of Hungary examines financing conditions and economic challenges. Hungary was among the first emerging market countries to suffer from the fallout of the current global financial crisis. Compared with other emerging markets,...

The paper discusses the challenges facing Albania's fiscal policy following the graduation from the IMF programs. It argues that Albania's public debt remains too high and needs to be reduced. Strengthening the fiscal framework, including by introducing a numerical fiscal rule, could help...

Ghana showed strong growth underpinned by high commodity export prices, the start of oil production, and strong non-oil activity. Executive Directors welcomed this development, and stressed that monetary policy implementation will need to remain vigilant. Directors welcomed the recent approval...

Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland face the serious challenge of adjusting not only to lower Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) transfers because of the global economic crisis, but also to a potential further decline over the medium term. This paper assesses options for the design of...

Over many years rises and fall of world oil prices have been repeatedly reflected in the boom-bust cycles in oil-exporting countries the world over. The recent spectacular rise and equally spectacular fall in prices provides an opportunity to inquire whether anything is different this time. In...

Only a few empirical studies have analyzed the relationship between fiscal multipliers and the underlying state of the economy. This paper investigates this link on a country-by-country basis for the G7 economies (excluding Italy). Our results show that fiscal multipliers differ across...