This Second Progress Report on Tajikistan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) discusses key developments in the status and dynamics of poverty-related indicators in the country during 2004. Although economic growth has generated significant reductions in poverty rates in the past...

As a reflection of the vulnerability to external shocks and the importance of large projects, gross domestic product growth has showed significant variations in the second half of the 1990s. The large public sector investments that have started in 1997 included the Leeward Highway, a new ferry...

All quantitative and structural performance criteria for end-June 2003 were observed. These positive results reflect several factors, including improved public expenditure management and strengthened revenue administration (offsetting delays in some of this year's new revenue measures),...

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

This paper focuses on selected aspects of Italy’s fiscal situation, its origins, and its pervasive economic consequences. The paper analyzes different aspects of regional duality and the unbalanced recovery. The paper highlights that regional duality is a salient feature of the Italian...

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) Data Module provides a review of Poland's data dissemination practices against the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), complemented by an in-depth assessment of the quality of Poland's national accounts, consumer price...

This Selected Issues paper examines conditions in Colombian labor markets, which present a big challenge to the country. At end-2004, the unemployment rate amounted to 12 percent, and about one-third of the labor force was considered underemployed. The paper reviews labor market developments...

The development of the Croatian financial sector has faced many of the difficulties experienced by other transition countries. Recent troubles have exacted a significant macroeconomic price but the strategy implemented by the Croatian National Bank (CNB) since the approval of the new banking law...

In this paper, the implementation of the activities under the interim poverty reduction strategy and progress toward the elaboration of poverty reduction strategy are described. Institutional framework is strengthened by the creation of the inter-ministerial committee on the implementation of...

This paper describes economic developments in Tonga during the 1990s. From 1993 to 1996, financial policies were quite expansionary. Following the licensing of two new banks, credit growth accelerated in 1994. The National Reserve Bank of Tonga initially adopted an accommodating stance, but in...