Policy Papers
2008
December 12, 2008
Charges and Maturities-Proposals for Reform
Description:
This paper focuses on two key features of the financial terms and maturities of high access to the Fund’s General Resources Account (GRA): surcharges and time-based repurchase expectations. Surcharges, which together with the adjusted rate of charge determine the cost of high access to Fund credit, currently vary across facilities and are linked to either the level of access or the duration of lending. The policy on repurchase expectations is an administrative mechanism that encourages accelerated repayment terms, effectively shortening loan maturities. Both policies on surcharges and repurchase expectations were introduced to mitigate credit risks and safeguard the revolving nature of Fund resources.
Charges and Maturities and Proposals for Reform, Supplement 1
Charges and Maturities and Proposals for Reform, Supplement 2
December 5, 2008
The Fund's Income Position for FY 2009-Midyear Review
Description: This paper reviews the outlook for the Fund’s income position for the financial year 2009 taking into account developments through the first half of the year. The FY 2009 income outlook has improved, mainly as a result of new lending activity associated with the turmoil in global financial markets, together, to a lesser extent, with stronger-than-projected returns in the Investment Account (IA) in the first half of the financial year. The updated projections indicate that the net income position would be slightly positive in FY 2009. However, the actual outcome remains subject to considerable uncertainty related to the timing and amounts of disbursements under current arrangements, as well as potential new arrangements and the performance of the IA
November 24, 2008
Statement by the Managing Director on the Work Program of the Executive Board - Executive Board Meeting, November 24, 2008
Description: The global economy is going through a period of unprecedented financial instability. The Fund has been asked by the IMFC to play a leading role in helping the membership both to deal with the immediate crisis and work towards a new strengthened global architecture. These tasks are well within our mandate. Addressing these challenges—and doing so within a compressed timeframe—will require strict prioritization on three key areas: (i) providing policy advice and timely financial support that meets members’ needs; (ii) understanding what went wrong; (iii) and assembling the building blocks of a new international financial architecture.
November 19, 2008
Seventh Review of the Fund's Data Standards Initiatives
Description: Studies of the financial crises in the 1990s concluded that, at least in part, they derived from data deficiencies. Following the Mexican crisis of 1994, intensive work was undertaken on developing a range of standards and codes, and data standards were among the most critical. The Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) was initiated in 1996 covering key macroeconomic datasets. The SDDS has led to improvements in the macroeconomic datasets that it encompasses, much greater public awareness of data and enhanced macroeconomic basis for policy makers. Thus, the SDDS benefits subscribing countries and has facilitated international surveillance and analysis by capital markets. Sixty-four countries now subscribe to the SDDS.
October 27, 2008
A New Facility for Market Access Countries--The Short-Term Liquidity Facility - proposed decision
Description: This supplement sets forth the proposed decision that is needed to establish the Short-Term Liquidity Facility (“SLF”) proposed in the main paper. It also summarizes key aspects and implications of this decision, and reviews the applicability to the SLF of other Fund policies.
October 24, 2008
A New Facility for Market Access Countries--The Short-Term Liquidity Facility
Description:
Please note that the Shorth-Term Liquidity Facility was discontinued March 29, 2009. The above information is no longer current. Read the press release.
The ongoing financial market turmoil is remarkable for its severity but also for the speed with which shocks have spread across markets and economies. Disruptions in short-term funding in mature markets, deleveraging and contraction of bank balance sheets, and contagion from a systemic loss of confidence are leading rapidly to sharply reduced financial flows to economies far from the origins of the crisis. Market turbulence in advanced economies has thus led to the emergence of short-term external liquidity needs even in emerging market countries with strong underlying domestic policies.
In these circumstances, the Fund’s traditional facilities may not always be the optimal means of addressing short-term balance of payments pressures. Stand-By Arrangements (SBAs) have been used flexibly to support members’ economic programs where both policy adjustment and financing were needed to address underlying vulnerabilities, buttress market confidence, and facilitate a member’s early return to market financing.
This paper proposes a special facility to complement existing instruments by filling a gap in the Fund’s toolkit.
October 23, 2008
Mongolia-Assessment Letter for the Asian Development Bank
Description: Assessment Letters or Statements may be prepared for member countries with Fund-supported programs; receiving Fund emergency assistance; with staff-monitored programs; or surveillance-only cases. They are typically produced for use by the country with multilateral or bilateral donors or creditors, in particular the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions.
October 8, 2008
Statement by the Managing Director to the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) on the IMF's Lending Role and Surveillance Priorities
Description: IMF staff has done extensive analysis of the crisis and its spillovers drawing on lessons from past crises, and disseminated information, analysis and policy advice through the Executive Board and intensive contacts with our members. We have also stepped up crisis preparedness efforts and are in close touch with individual members experiencing stress, standing ready to help with further advice and financial assistance.
October 8, 2008
Report of the Managing Director to the International Monetary and Financial Committee on the IMF's Policy Agenda-IMF Responses to Global Economic Challenges
Description: The report provides an update on work in the following areas: global stability, IMF lending, food and fuel price developments, and modernizing the IMF.
October 8, 2008
Provisional Agenda for the Eighteenth Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee
Description: The following is the provisional agenda for the Eighteenth Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, which is to be convened on Saturday, October 11, 2008, at the IMF's Headquarters in Washington, D.C.