Country Reports
2021
October 8, 2021
Jordan: Technical Assistance Report-Fiscal Transparency Evaluation
Description: Jordan has taken important steps to enhance its fiscal transparency over the past decade. Notably, there is a comprehensive legal framework for the management of public finances. Fiscal reports have become more comprehensive and cover a high proportion of public sector institutions. The frequency of in-year reporting is at an advanced level, as is the timeliness of publication of the government’s annual financial statements. Fiscal statistics are disseminated in accordance with international standards (SDDS). Fiscal forecasts and budgets have become more forward looking and policy oriented with the introduction of a five-year medium-term budget framework and a program classification. As a result of improvements in fiscal transparency practices, in the 2019 Open Budget Survey, Jordan scored above the global average for transparency, and is the only country in the region ranked overall as ‘green’ on this measure. Nevertheless, the FTE provides a more detailed and in-depth analysis with a broader focus.
October 7, 2021
South Africa: Detailed Assessment Report on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism
Description: This report summarizes the AML/CFT measures in place in the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) as at the date of the onsite visit (October 22 to November 12, 2019). It analyses the level of compliance with the FATF 40 Recommendations and the level of effectiveness of South Africa’s AML/CFT system and provides recommendations on how the system could be strengthened.
October 7, 2021
Ecuador: 2021 Article IV Consultation, Second and Third Reviews Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, Request for a Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion, and Financing Assurances Review-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Ecuador
Description: The new administration has committed to continue with the Fund-supported Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of SDR 4,615 million (661 percent of quota, about $6.5 billion) that was approved by the IMF Executive Board on September 30, 2020. The authorities’ objectives under the program are to ensure an environmental-friendly growth with high quality jobs, promote a transparent management of public resources, and ensure equity in the conduct of fiscally sustainable policies. Upon the completion of the Second and Third Reviews under the EFF, an additional SDR $568 million would be made available.
October 5, 2021
Republic of Congo: 2021 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for the Republic of Congo
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic and oil price shocks have taken a deep toll on the Congolese economy, weighing on incomes and inequality. Debt sustainability challenges precluded Fund financial assistance during the pandemic, and the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, approved in 2019, expired in April 2021 without having completed the first review. Recently, debt sustainability has been restored owing to the authorities’ debt restructuring strategy and current and projected higher oil prices. However, the risk of debt distress remains high given liquidity risks and vulnerabilities to negative oil price shocks. The authorities are actively negotiating the resolution of pending external arrears. Until this process is concluded and the negotiations with two external creditors are finalized, debt is classified as being “in distress.”
September 30, 2021
Georgia: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note-Stress Testing and Financial Stability Analysis
Description: This note presents the results of banks’ stress tests carried out jointly by the NBG and the FSAP teams in the context of the 2021 FSAP. It describes the scope, methodology and results of a series of top-down stress tests carried out during January‒April 2021. At the request of the Georgian authorities, complementary bottom-up exercises were not implemented, on account of the operational challenges facing banks because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 30, 2021
Georgia: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note-Macroprudential Policies and De-Dollarization
Description: Since the 2015 FSAP, the NBG has significantly strengthened its institutional framework for macroprudential policy and put in place a comprehensive toolkit. Among other reforms, to strengthen the transparency of and accountability for macroprudential policy, the NBG published its Macroprudential Policy Strategy in 2019, which sets out five intermediate objectives: (i) mitigating and preventing excessive credit growth and leverage; (ii) mitigating and preventing excessive maturity mismatch and market illiquidity; (iii) limiting direct and indirect exposure concentrations; (iv) limiting the systemic impact of misaligned incentives with a view to reducing moral hazard; and (v) reducing dollarization of the financial system.
September 30, 2021
Georgia: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note-Selected Issues in Banking Supervision
Description: This note was prepared for the 2021 FSAP mission to Georgia and provides recommendations on a select set of banking supervision topics against relevant elements of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision. The current review focused on implementation and effectiveness of recent changes to the Georgian banking supervisory framework, and included actions being taken or planned to address current challenges facing Georgian authorities.
September 30, 2021
Georgia: Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note-Financial Safety Net, Resolution and Crisis Management
Description: Since the prior FSAP the authorities have comprehensively updated the legal, policy and procedural framework for failing bank resolution. In 2019 both the NBG and Banking Laws were amended to provide the authorities with powers to resolve banks that in the past might have been deemed too-big-to-fail; this eventuality is now greatly diminished. In 2017 a Deposit Insurance System Law was adopted to provide protection to natural person depositors when a bank fails and is liquidated. In 2020 the NBG published a series of rules specifying its policies and procedures for the use of its new powers, and jointly with the MoF published regulations addressing the use of temporary public funding to mitigate the potential systemic implications of bank failures.