Policy Papers
2023
June 30, 2023
Review of Experience with The Food Shock Window Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility
Description: The Food Shock Window (FSW) under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) was approved in September 2022 for 12 months, as a complement to the tools used by the Fund to support the broader international effort to address the global food shock. The Fund has been working closely with partners to provide a coordinated international response to the global food shock, and has contributed through policy advice, technical assistance and lending. Where needed and possible, financial support to countries affected by the global food shock has been delivered by the IMF through multi-year Fund-supported programs The FSW complemented this support in situations where these programs were not feasible or not necessary. As the global food shock and associated balance of payment pressures are expected to continue throughout 2023, the IMF extended the FSW until end-March 2024 to allow the FSW to continue serving as a contingency tool. This extension will also provide sufficient time to observe if the FSW can lapse without limiting the capacity of the Fund to support its members. To ensure adequate borrowing space under the emergency financing limits for those countries that have received support through the FSW, the IMF also extended the additional 25 percent of quota added to the Cumulative Access Limit until end-2026 for countries that have accessed the Food Shock Window through the RFI and until the completion of the 2024/25 PRGT review for those that accessed the Food Shock Window through the RCF.
June 30, 2023
Review of The Cumulative Access Limits Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility
Description: The IMF extended the temporarily higher Cumulative Access Limits under the Fund’s Emergency Financing instruments, the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) under the General Resources Account, and the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust. This extension ensures that the Fund can continue to support member countries that accessed Fund’s emergency financing during COVID-19 pandemic in case of renewed emergency situations. The temporarily higher cumulative access limits under the RFI will be maintained until end-June 2024 when most RFI recipients will have repaid a significant part of their past emergency financing. The temporarily higher cumulative access limits under the RCF will be maintained until the completion of the 2024/25 comprehensive review of the Fund’s concessional facilities and financing, given the longer repayment schedule for RCF financing.
June 23, 2023
Staff Guidance Note on Information Sharing in The Context of Sovereign Debt Restructurings
Description: The guidance note sets out principles governing information sharing in the context of sovereign debt restructurings. It restates the existing Fund governance and policy guidelines for information sharing to help inform and harmonize practices across Fund country teams. In addition to outlining guiding principles applicable to information sharing, it provides guidance on what level of information can be shared during each stage of the restructuring and program design process and in the surveillance context
June 23, 2023
List of IMF Member Countries with Delays in Completion of Article IV Consultations or Mandatory Financial Stability Assessments Over 18 Months
Description: List of IMF Member Countries with Delays in Completion of Article IV Consultations or Mandatory Financial Stability Assessments Over 18 Months
June 16, 2023
Review of the Climate Macroeconomic Assessment Program Pilots
Description: This paper reviews the two Climate Macroeconomic Assessment Program (CMAP) pilots and proposes a way forward. It builds on the experience of the previous six Climate Change Policy Assessment (CCPA) pilots, and the recent rollout of the World Bank’s Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR). It also accounts for early experience with countries requesting support under the Fund’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST). Based on the lessons from pilots and recent developments, staff proposes to streamline the CMAP to focus on the Fund’s comparative advantages in the areas of mitigation, PFM and macro-fiscal impact of climate change policies, provide a streamlined CMAP in exceptional circumstances, and expand more targeted CD in particular in support of RSF countries. This focused and tailored approach would benefit members as it is more agile, allows the Fund to serve more members within the same resource envelope and enhance synergies with other Fund products and the World Bank’s CCDR.
June 16, 2023
Review of the Fund’s Income Position for FY2023 and FY2024
Description: This paper updates the projections of the Fund’s income position for FY 2023 and FY 2024 and proposes related decisions for the current and next financial year. The paper also includes a proposed decision to keep the margin for the rate of charge unchanged for financial year 2024. The Fund’s overall net income for FY 2023 is projected at about SDR 1.8 billion, slightly lower than the April 2022 estimate.
June 14, 2023
Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust—Review of Interest Rate Structure—Postponement
Description: This paper proposes to postpone the next review of the PRGT interest rate structure to end-July 2025, given the desirability to consider all policies regarding low-income country facilities—including those related to PRGT interest rates—at once in the context of 2024/25 Review of the Fund’s Concessional Facilities and Financing. As a result of this postponement, the interest rates on all PRGT credit would be kept at zero until the completion of the next review.
May 30, 2023
Implementation Plan in Response to the Board-Endorsed Recommendation from the IEO Evaluation On IMF and Capacity Development
Description: This Management Implementation Plan (MIP) proposes actions in response to the Board-endorsed recommendations provided by the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO)’s report on IMF and Capacity Development (CD). Staff has already begun addressing some of the IEO recommendations and several of the actions proposed in this MIP reflect initiatives in train. Resource implications are therefore expected to be manageable in the near term as these actions have mostly been incorporated into departmental work plans and budgets for fiscal year (FY) 2024. Medium-term resource implications will be discussed in the context of the FY 2025-FY 2026 medium-term budget proposals.
April 26, 2023
2023 Review of Resource Adequacy of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, Resilience and Sustainability Trust, and Debt Relief Trusts
Description: This paper provides an integrated perspective across the Trusts of the Fund. It is the first annual review that combines discussion of the adequacy of the resources of the Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and debt relief trusts, including the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), with that of the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST). The review of the PRGT assesses recent developments for lending demand, fundraising, and interest rates and compares them to the baseline projections underpinning the July 2021 reforms. A multi-pronged strategy is proposed to address identified strains on PRGT finances while minimizing negative effects for PRGT borrowers and preserving the confidence of PRGT lenders. On the recently established RST, this paper reports its fundraising progress; discusses demand developments and outlook for RST financing; assesses adequacy of loan resources and reserves; and examines, in view of increases in the SDR interest rate, the implications of adopting an interest rate cap at 2¼ percent for the lowest income group eligible for RST borrowing. The attached file has been amended on June 2, 2023 to include the Summing Up that was inadvertently omitted from the bundle