Country Reports
2022
July 7, 2022
Ireland: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Informational Annex
Description: This 2022 Article IV Consultation with Ireland highlights that the economy has rebounded strongly from the pandemic. The financial sector weathered the pandemic crisis well thanks to high capital buffers and effective policy support. The impact of the pandemic on borrowers’ financial position has started to dissipate, but uncertainty remains. While the outlook is strong, uncertainty is substantial due to the indirect impacts of the war in Ukraine. Several pre-pandemic challenges remain: housing shortages, infrastructure, social and green investment gaps, and the need to strengthen multinational enterprises’ inward linkages to broaden growth and make it more inclusive. There is also a need to address the Global Financial Crisis legacy effects on the financial system and tackle the factors contributing to high lending interest rates. The fiscal stance is broadly appropriate. However, in the short term, two-way fiscal flexibility is needed to strike a balance between supporting the economy and containing inflation. In case growth disappoints, automatic stabilizers should be allowed to fully operate and fiscal space deployed, if necessary, through high-quality measures. Structural reforms should aim to remove bottlenecks, increase productivity, and reduce inequities. In particular, housing supply policies should be further strengthened, with a focus on boosting productivity in the construction sector and improving the planning and permit processes.
July 7, 2022
Ireland: Selected Issues
Description: This Selected Issues paper on Ireland focuses on ensuring an inclusive and growth-enhancing fiscal policy mix. It assesses the scope for improving the tax system toward a more growth-friendly structure, and for achieving efficiency gains in public expenditure. It also discusses upcoming impediments to long term fiscal sustainability and proposes options to achieve a more growth friendly and equity-enhancing revenue and expenditure policy mix. Under the 2021 National Development Plan, the government plans to significantly expand investment to historically high levels over the medium term. Good progress has been achieved in raising public spending efficiency but there is scope for further improvement. The stylized facts highlight the need for reforms to broaden the tax base and find new and stable sources of revenues as well as improving public expenditure efficiency. Public spending should focus on growth-friendly spending and reducing efficiency gaps. Decisive reforms are needed to ensure the future sustainability of the pension system and safeguard long term fiscal sustainability.
July 7, 2022
Ireland: Financial System Stability Assessment
Description: This Financial System Stability Assessment paper highlights that the Irish financial system has grown rapidly and in complexity, especially after Brexit, and Ireland has become a European base for large financial groups. Risks to financial stability emanate from a much larger and more complex financial system, persistent legacy issues, as well as emergent ones from non-bank lending, Fintech, and climate change. Stress tests confirmed banks’ resilience to severe macrofinancial shocks, with some caveats. While broadly adequate, supervisory resources and capacity need to keep pace with a growing and more complex sector with significant cross-border linkages. Efforts are needed to further strengthen supervision of banks’ credit risk and develop capacity and skills on new areas such as climate, non-bank lending, and Fintech. Insurance oversight should prioritize intra-group complexities. Resolution and crisis management can be enhanced through greater planning and collaboration between the Central Bank and the Department of Finance to bolster the ability to deal effectively with institution failures and systemic crises.
July 5, 2022
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Staff Report for the 2022 Article IV Consultation, Second Review Under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement, Request for Modifications of Performance Criteria, and Financing Assurances Review-Press Release; Staff Report, and Statement by the Executive Director for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Description: This paper highlights Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the 2022 Article IV Consultation, Second Review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement, Request for Modification of Performance Criteria, and Financing Assurances Review. The DRC’s macroeconomic environment has improved since the last Article IV consultation in 2019. The authorities have adopted prudent macroeconomic policies, most visibly by halting central bank financing to the government. Strengthening the monetary and exchange rate policy frameworks will support price stability and external sustainability. Continued efforts to accumulate reserves buffers while enhancing the role of the exchange rate as a shock absorber are paramount to build resilience to external shocks. Advancing structural reforms and strengthening policy frameworks, including in natural wealth management, are key to promoting higher and sustainable inclusive growth, as the global energy transition provides an opportunity for development. Scaling up structural reforms remains critical to promote inclusive growth, including those enhancing governance and enhancing the business climate—both key to support investment, private sector development, economic diversification, and competitiveness.
July 5, 2022
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Selected Issues
Description: This Selected Issues paper on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) focuses on building resilience and exploring opportunities from climate change. Addressing the challenges associated with climate change in the DRC requires a good understanding of its exposure to climate vulnerabilities as well as the bottlenecks in scaling up climate policies to achieve its nationally determined contribution. At the same time, the global efforts to develop low-carbon technology and conserve carbon sinks put the DRC in a good position with substantial long-term benefit for the country. Hence, the country would benefit from focused efforts in strengthening forest and mining managements, while building resilience to climate change. Current logging policies have failed to prevent deforestation in the DRC. The DRC presents itself as a solution country for the diffusion of carbon-reduction technology. The advent of metals critical for the energy transition could strengthen the impact of global commodity cycles on external sector.
July 5, 2022
Republic of Kazakhstan: Technical Assistance Report-Risk-Based Supervision Recovery Plans and Interest Rate Risk
Description: This paper presents Republic of Kazakhstan’s Technical Assistance (TA) report on risk-based supervision recovery plans and interest rate risk. The mission provided recommendations and training to the Agency on the assessment of banks’ recovery plans and interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB). The Agency continues to make progress on aligning its prudential regulatory and supervisory frameworks with international standards. The two missions in September 2020 and November 2020 focused on strengthening the Agency’s institutional set up, and on the implementation of certain elements of the Pillar 2 requirements of the Basel Framework. This mission recommended the Agency develop comprehensive regulatory requirements for banks’ recovery plans. The new framework should provide standards that comply with international standards and reflect proportional application to Kazakhstan banks’ systemic risk profile. A short-term follow-up TA can be considered to ensure consistency of the revised regulations with international standards. The mission included six training sessions for supervisors on IRRBB and recovery plans.
July 5, 2022
Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Common Policies in Support of Member Countries Reform Programs-Staff Report, and Statement by the Executive Director
Description: This paper discusses Central African Economic and Monetary Community’s (CEMAC) Common Policies in Support of Member Countries Reform Programs. CEMAC ended 2021 in a fragile external position, with gross reserves at only 2.7 months of prospective imports and net foreign assets at their lowest level in decades, despite the availability of Fund financing, the SDR allocation, and monetary policy tightening. The terms of trade shock this year is expected to be broadly positive for CEMAC. This more favorable outlook is, however, subject to heightened external uncertainties associated with the fallout from the war in Ukraine, faster-than-anticipated global financial tightening, possible emergence of new coronavirus disease strains and risks from crypto-assets. This report suggests to seize the opportunity offered by high oil prices to rebuild both fiscal and external buffers. Social safety nets should be strengthened to protect vulnerable populations from the effects of soaring energy, food, and fertilizer prices. The paper also recommends to normalizing the prudential framework by end-June 2022 as planned and ensures that banks account for sovereign risk adequately.
July 5, 2022
Vietnam: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report, and Statement by the Executive Director for Vietnam
Description: This 2022 Article IV Consultation discusses that Vietnam entered the pandemic with robust economic growth and sound fundamentals. Prudent policies resulted in a prolonged period of high growth, price stability, and low public debt ratios. Strong foreign direct investments and trade flows boosted external buffers while banks entered the pandemic in a relatively strong position. The government’s new support package presents an opportunity to entrench the recovery, mitigate the scars of the pandemic, and deliver sustained and inclusive growth. In view of the strong but uneven recovery and heightened uncertainty, policymaking should be agile, and the size and composition of policy support calibrated to the pace of the recovery and downside risks. The report suggests that monetary policy should be increasingly focused on rising inflationary risks, while allowing for greater exchange rate flexibility. Reforms to modernize the monetary policy framework should continue. In order to bolster long-term growth and convergence, the authorities should decisively tackle pervasive economic dualism and boost productivity, focusing on improving the business environment, strengthening governance, reducing corruption, alleviating labor skill mismatches, and improving labor force quality.
July 1, 2022
Haiti: Staff-Monitored Program-Press Release; and Staff Report
Description: This paper highlights Haiti’s Staff-Monitored Program (SMP) and report proceedings. It is not feasible for Haiti to implement an upper credit tranche (UCT) IMF-supported program at this time due to the weakened policy frameworks and erosion in administrative capacity during the protracted crisis. The proposed SMP ending May 31, 2023 would help build capacity, support efforts to reduce inflation and raise growth, strengthen fiscal and monetary policy frameworks, address governance weaknesses and combat corruption, and take concrete steps to strengthen social assistance. A successful SMP is needed to build a track record of policy implementation that would improve Haiti’s prospects for a UCT program. It is recommended to mobilize revenues and strengthen public finance management, notably with higher tobacco, alcohol, and car excises, expansion and simplification of the tax base, and measures to strengthen expenditure management and controls. The program also recommends to strengthen the framework for monetary and exchange rate policies by clarifying the objectives and modalities for liquidity and foreign exchange rate operations.
July 1, 2022
Côte d’Ivoire: Selected Issues
Description: This Selected Issues paper on Cote d’Ivoire focuses on assessing the scope for domestic revenue mobilization. Côte d’Ivoire’s tax revenue has been increasing in recent years, supported by the authorities’ efforts, particularly on tax administration and digitalization. However, tax revenue remains low by international standards reflecting tax exemptions as well as low level of indirect taxation and noncompliance. While recent tax measures are encouraging, more policy changes are necessary, and should be anchored in comprehensive tax policy and administration reforms to boost revenue mobilization. Côte d’Ivoire’s tax policy reforms should focus on simplifying the personal income tax regime and enhancing its progressivity; reducing or eliminating discretionary and statutory tax exemptions; and harnessing unrealized revenue potential of property and excise taxes. Tax administration reforms should be sustained to further modernize tax and customs administration; deepen digitalization; and enhance management of human resources.