This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix surveys the main reasons for Papua New Guinea’s disappointing economic performance, highlighting the key impediments to growth in each of the main sectors of the economy. The paper outlines the structural reforms that could help reduce these...

This Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix paper reviews the path of Papua New Guinea’s external debt over the last decade. It explains the underlying macroeconomic framework to better understand the dynamics behind the external debt profile, and assesses the relative scale of the public...

This Selected Issues paper outlines economic developments in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) since independence in 1986, focusing on the challenges posed by dependence on foreign grants, and progress toward achieving budgetary self-reliance. Like most other Pacific islands, the RMI...

This paper analyzes the workings and effectiveness of the monetary transmission mechanism in Papua New Guinea. The paper is organized as follows: it describes the current institutional structure in Papua New Guinea; interest rate is discussed; the evidence from vector autoregression analysis on the...

The strategy that has the best chance of allowing the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) to achieve fiscal sustainability after FY2023 involves substantial fiscal consolidation. The alternative (policy action) scenario involves a substantial fiscal adjustment starting in FY2009. Projections show...

This Selected Issues paper on Papua New Guinea reports that although economic cycles have generally paralleled the many mineral sector booms and busts, the downward trend in growth rates may reflect other factors. Papua New Guinea’s economy is dominated by a large labor-intensive agricultural...

This Selected Issues paper explores the medium-term determinants of the current account balance in Papua New Guinea. It provides an assessment of the exchange rate, and presents some background on recent exchange rate developments. It uses two dynamic panel regression models to estimate the...