A fragile recovery continues in the Middle East and Central Asia region. The region has made good progress since the beginning of the year, but new challenges have emerged. They include a pandemic wave in countries with weak vaccination progress and rising inflation, which has contributed to...

The economies of the Middle East and Central Asia proved resilient in 2022, despite a series of global shocks. However, this year-and potentially next-growth is expected to slow in the Middle East and North Africa as tight policies to fight inflation, reduce vulnerabilities, and rebuild buffers...

This Selected Issues paper discusses governance challenges in the Kyrgyz Republic. This paper aims to assess various aspects of governance in the Kyrgyz Republic and identify some of the key challenges in this area. Governance reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic can leverage linkages to the global...

The 2022 Article IV Consultation discusses that the economy of the Kyrgyz Republic has shown resilience to the spillovers from the war in Ukraine and is estimated to have grown by 5.5 percent in 2022, driven by gold production, trade, transportation, and agriculture. Strong output growth in 2022...

This Selected Issues paper assesses Iraq's national pension system by examining the fiscal burden of budget-financed pensions and providing a sustainability analysis of the contributory pension scheme for public sector workers. It also outlines reform options that can assist the authorities in...

The 2022 Article IV Consultation discusses that Iraq's economy has been gradually recovering, supported by strong oil revenues and accommodative policies. Domestic inflation has been contained with the pass-through from high global commodity prices muted by domestic food and fuel subsidies. The...

This selected issue paper discusses the desirable institutional and macro-financial conditions and optimal path toward greater exchange rate flexibility in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. It also identifies the macro-financial risks that arise and mitigation measures supporting a smooth...