This paper assesses Lesotho’s Third Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) Arrangement and Request for Waivers of Performance Criteria. The government has declared a state of famine that is affecting an estimated 900,000 people. One quantitative performance...

This Financial System Stability Assessment on France reviews the institutional and regulatory framework. Consolidation among financial institutions has resulted in six large universal, vertically integrated banking groups having a strong position in the domestic market. Bank profitability has...

This paper reviews economic developments in the Philippines during 1990–95. By 1994, all the elements for a strong recovery had finally fallen into place. Gross National Product (GNP) growth accelerated to 5 percent, fueled by a strong performance of investment and export-oriented...

Suriname's mining-based economy has suffered from poor macroeconomic management. Executive Directors commended the authorities' efforts to stabilize the economic, fiscal, and monetary policies stances, and emphasized the need to accelerate structural reforms. They stressed the need for fiscal...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix on Jordan underlies stabilization and structural transformation of the economy. Current fiscal policy appears to be broadly sustainable and should be sufficient to allow for the continued fall in the debt burden, absent large external...

This 2004 Article IV Consultation highlights that the government of the Solomon Islands has moved rapidly to stabilize budgetary finances since the arrival in mid-2003 of the multinational Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) that has restored law and order throughout the...

This Selected Issues paper focuses on some of the key stylized facts of Korean business and export cycles over 1960–2001, and calculates a chronology for the classical cycle in these series by applying a variant of the Bry and Boschan (1971) cycle-doling algorithm. It highlights that the...

The Stand-By Arrangement with Bosnia and Herzegovina was approved on May 29, 1998. Bank regulation and supervision have been strengthened over the past year, although procedures continue to fall short of best practice in some areas. The authorities have reformed the sales tax regime to equalize...

Colombia's economic performance deteriorated markedly in 1998–99 owing to a combination of external shocks. The main program objectives for 2001 are to achieve a further reduction in inflation to 8 percent, continue the recovery of economic activity, and strengthen the public finances...

This paper assesses Ethiopia’s Second Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), and Requests for Augmentation of Access and for Waiver of Performance Criterion, and Second Annual Program. Performance under the first annual...