Country Reports
2024
May 21, 2024
Peru: 2024 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Peru
Description: The 2024 Article IV Consultation with Peru discusses that the economy is recovering from consecutive climate-related shocks and social turmoil at the beginning of 2023. Inflation has receded thanks to the central bank’s decisive monetary policy tightening, while the fiscal position and the financial system remain strong. The country is in a period of relative political stability, but lingering political uncertainty is denting the appetite for pressing reforms to boost potential growth. Evolving risks are broadly balanced, and Peru has ample buffers to cope with adverse shocks, although the outlook remains uncertain. In the short term, key domestic risks include an intensification of political uncertainty, social unrest, and climate-related shocks. Key external risks comprise weak trading-partner growth, commodity price volatility, and a sharp tightening of global financial conditions. On the upside, a stronger recovery in confidence could support stronger private consumption and investment growth. Strong buffers including relatively low public debt, abundant international reserves, and access to international capital markets on favorable terms reinforce Peru’s proven macroeconomic resilience.
May 21, 2024
Peru: Selected Issues
Description: The Selected Issues paper focuses on productivity and growth in Peru. Firms have maintained smaller sizes to avoid the application of a profit-sharing legislation, which has resulted in lower productivity. After a decade of high economic growth averaging over 6 percent per year, potential growth has been falling since 2014. A much slower pace of investment and human has driven the decline capital accumulation, but most notably, a decline in total factor productivity growth. In line with the macroeconomic trends, firm-level productivity has worsened, and the decline has been broad-based across the economy. Special corporate tax regimes and labor legislations and regulations have created barriers to productivity growth. To raise productivity, policies will need to focus on reforming regulations that impose excessive costs to formalizing or growing a business. Down the line, introducing greater labor market flexibility would ensure that workers could transition to productive sectors of the economy and reduce labor informality.
May 20, 2024
Guinea-Bissau: Fourth and Fifth Reviews Under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement and Requests For Rephasing of Access, Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria, Modification of Performance Criteria, and Financing Assurances Review
Description: This paper presents Guinea-Bissau’s Fourth and Fifth Reviews under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement and Requests for Rephasing of Access, Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria, Modification of Performance Criteria, and Financing Assurances Review. Growth is projected to recover in 2024, but the external environment remains extremely challenging. Inflation is projected to be higher after the suspension of rice subsidies. The near-term policies are geared toward supporting the cashew export campaign, but the risks to the outlook remain tilted toward the downside. The successful implementation of the fiscal consolidation strategy is key to reduce vulnerabilities and bring down the high level of public debt. Mobilizing revenue is essential, particularly through the reduction of tax expenditures, improvements in tax administration and the broadening of the tax base. The government is firmly committed to implementing the policies underpinning the IMF supported program. The authorities’ near-term priority is to maintain fiscal discipline and accelerate structural reforms to strengthen institutions and improve governance.
May 17, 2024
Guinea: Selected Issues
Description: This Selected Issues paper examines the potential medium and long-term effects of the Simandou iron ore project on Guinea’s economy and income distribution. The paper uses two complementary macroeconomic models. If production began in 2025, the level of real gross domestic product would be around 26 percent by 2030 compared to a baseline scenario without the project. The project would induce a currency appreciation of around 3 percent in 2025 and 2 percent in 2030. It would lead to an increase in employment, but the positive impact on private consumption and inequality could be limited without active policies. Different policy scenarios suggest that spending the potential tax revenues on education and infrastructure results in higher growth and stronger poverty reduction. Results show that the investment of tax revenues in infrastructure and education would foster the positive impact of the project on growth and poverty reduction.
May 17, 2024
Guinea: 2024 Article IV Consultation and Request for Disbursement Under the Rapid Credit Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Guinea
Description: On December 18, 2023, the explosion of a major fuel import and storage facility led to fuel shortages and new urgent financing needs. The blast caused 25 deaths and 457 injured as well as widespread fuel shortages, affecting transportation and economic activity. The relatively strong mining sector is sustaining growth, although growth is expected to decelerate to 4.1 percent in 2024, lower than the 2019-23 average of 5.1 percent. Average inflation is expected to increase to 11 percent in 2024 as fuel shortages pushed up prices. Socio-political tensions persist in the wake of the military coup of September 2021 and the hardship caused by the explosion.
May 16, 2024
Iraq: 2024 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Iraq
Description: The 2024 Article IV Consultation highlights that domestic stability has improved since the new government took office in October 2022, facilitating the passage of Iraq’s first three-year budget, which entailed a large fiscal expansion starting in 2023. The ongoing fiscal expansion is expected to boost growth in 2024, at the expense of a further deterioration of fiscal and external accounts and Iraq’s vulnerability to oil price fluctuations. Without policy adjustment, the risk of medium-term sovereign debt stress is high and external stability risks could emerge. Key downside risks include much lower oil prices or a spread of the conflict in Gaza and Israel. A fiscal adjustment is needed to stabilize debt over the medium term while protecting critical social and capital spending. Large savings can be attained from containing the outsized public wage bill and policy measures aimed at mobilizing additional non-oil revenues. Private sector development and economic diversification are crucial to ensure long-term external sustainability and foster private job creation.
May 15, 2024
St. Kitts and Nevis: Selected Issues
Description: This Selected Issues paper on St. Kitts and Nevis studies economic benefits from energy transition. Cheaper and more stable energy prices can support macroeconomic stability. In addition to the aforementioned effects, low and stable energy prices can mitigate the adverse impact from terms-of-trade shocks and reduce inflation volatility, thus contributing to smoothing out economic cycles. The energy landscape of St. Kitts and Nevis calls for energy reform. The two islands of St. Kitts and Nevis rely heavily on fossil fuels, primarily diesel, to power their grids without Interconnection. The analysis uses cross-country examples to examine the channels through which the adoption of renewable energy on a large scale can yield numerous long-term economic benefits. Transitioning to domestic renewable energy sources could stabilize domestic energy prices and reduce the volatility of inflation. A sharp reduction in energy costs in St. Kitts and Nevis could promote sectoral diversification. High-energy costs can prohibit economic diversification, particularly into energy intensive industries.
May 15, 2024
St. Kitts and Nevis: 2024 Article IV Consultation-Press Release and Staff Report
Description: The 2024 Article IV Consultation with St. Kitts and Nevis discusses that despite a continued strong tourism performance, growth fell to 3.4 percent in 2023 due to delays in public and private sector investment projects. The economic outlook is positive thanks to the renewable energy projects that would significantly reshape the economy. A privately funded utility-scale solar and battery storage project is expected to be completed in 2025 and a geothermal project in Nevis is at the planning stage. Debt and cash management could be improved and the social security fund requires urgent reform. Maintaining a large amount of short-term debt can be costly, particularly when fiscal buffers are available. The 2023 external position is assessed to be weaker than the level implied by medium-term fundamentals and desirable policies. The current account deficit is projected to fall to over the medium term supported by lower fossil fuel imports. International reserves are adequate.