Policy Papers
2024
November 25, 2024
2024 Review Of The Fund’s Transparency Policy And Open Archives Policy—Background Paper 3 On Key Concepts And Supportive Analysis
Description: On November 15, 2024, the IMF’s Executive Board concluded the Review of the IMF’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy and approved a number of reforms. As an international institution, making important documents available to the public on timely basis enhances the IMF’s credibility, accountability, and effectiveness and is critical to fulfill its mandate of promoting global economic and financial stability. While transparency at the IMF is achieved through a range of policies and practices, the Transparency Policy and the Open Archives Policy form the core elements of the IMF’s transparency framework. The Fund has come a long way since the inception of these policies in the early nineties. Most Board documents are now published, published more quickly, and under more consistent and evenhanded application of modification rules. The information available in the Fund’s archives has increased and is more easily accessible to the public. While experience suggests that these policies are effective in delivering on their objectives, the landscape in which the Fund operates has evolved since these policies were last reviewed in 2013. In a more interconnected and shock-prone world the pace with which policymakers need to make decisions has accelerated and the expectations of stakeholders on the availability and timeliness of the Fund’s analysis and policy advice has grown. Against this backdrop, the 2024 Review of the IMF’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy focuses on targeted reforms to (i) support faster publication of board documents and communications of Board’s decisions; (ii) strengthen the rules and processes to modify Board documents prior to publication; and (iii) allow faster release of some documents in the Fund’s archives accessible to the public. The reforms further clarify the scope and objectives of these policies, their implementation processes, and how to strengthen knowledge sharing. The review was supported by data analysis as well as surveys and consultations with key stakeholders, including Executive Directors, country authorities, IMF missions chiefs, and civil society organizations as detailed in the three background papers accompanying this 2024 review.
Notes:
2024 Review Of The Fund’s Transparency Policy And Open Archives Policy
November 25, 2024
2024 Review Of The Fund’s Transparency Policy And Open Archives Policy—Background Paper 2 On Consultations With Executive Directors, Country Authorities, Mission Chiefs, And Civil Society Organizations
Description: On November 15, 2024, the IMF’s Executive Board concluded the Review of the IMF’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy and approved a number of reforms. As an international institution, making important documents available to the public on timely basis enhances the IMF’s credibility, accountability, and effectiveness and is critical to fulfill its mandate of promoting global economic and financial stability. While transparency at the IMF is achieved through a range of policies and practices, the Transparency Policy and the Open Archives Policy form the core elements of the IMF’s transparency framework. The Fund has come a long way since the inception of these policies in the early nineties. Most Board documents are now published, published more quickly, and under more consistent and evenhanded application of modification rules. The information available in the Fund’s archives has increased and is more easily accessible to the public. While experience suggests that these policies are effective in delivering on their objectives, the landscape in which the Fund operates has evolved since these policies were last reviewed in 2013. In a more interconnected and shock-prone world the pace with which policymakers need to make decisions has accelerated and the expectations of stakeholders on the availability and timeliness of the Fund’s analysis and policy advice has grown. Against this backdrop, the 2024 Review of the IMF’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy focuses on targeted reforms to (i) support faster publication of board documents and communications of Board’s decisions; (ii) strengthen the rules and processes to modify Board documents prior to publication; and (iii) allow faster release of some documents in the Fund’s archives accessible to the public. The reforms further clarify the scope and objectives of these policies, their implementation processes, and how to strengthen knowledge sharing. The review was supported by data analysis as well as surveys and consultations with key stakeholders, including Executive Directors, country authorities, IMF missions chiefs, and civil society organizations as detailed in the three background papers accompanying this 2024 review.
Notes:
2024 Review Of The Fund’s Transparency Policy And Open Archives Policy
November 21, 2024
Fourteenth Periodic Monitoring Report On The Status Of Management Implementation Plans In Response To Board-Endorsed IEO Recommendations
Description: The 14th Periodic Monitoring Report (PMR) on the Status of Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) in Response to Board-endorsed Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) Recommendations assesses the progress made over the past year on 91 actions contain in 11 MIPs. Over the past year, substantial progress has been made in implementing management actions with the closure of 49 actions, more than double that of the previous PMR (24 closed actions), and most of these closed actions are strategic actions involving important reviews and key policy steps.
November 21, 2024
The Fund's Income Position for FY 2024--Actual Outcome
Description: This paper reports on the Fund’s income position for FY 2024 following the closing of the Fund’s accounts for the financial year and completion of the external audit. Overall net income of the General Department was SDR 4.7 billion, about SDR 0.2 billion higher than estimated in April, mainly reflecting an increase in the remeasurement gain reported under IAS 19 (the accounting standard for employee benefits). GRA net income in FY 2024 increases the Fund’s reserves and, in accordance with decisions taken by the Executive Board in April 2024, a net transfer of currencies of SDR 3.3 billion will be made from the GRA to the Investment Account during FY 2025. The Fund’s precautionary balances, following the placement of net income to the Fund’s reserves and the pension-related adjustments for the year, reached SDR 25.1 billion at the end of FY 2024, in line with the April projection.
November 18, 2024
EBA-Lite 3.0 Model and Methodology
Description: The EBA-lite methodology is a key input in external sector assessments for over three-quarters of IMF member countries, representing a broad set of emerging and low-income economies. The EBA-lite methodology is refined periodically, and this paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the current EBA-lite econometric models and framework which is referred to as EBA-lite 3.0. The most recent refinements to the EBA-lite models included data updates, improved construction of model variables, and exclusion of non-robust variables. This paper also updates operational guidance on the complementary EBA-lite tools, such as the external sustainability approach and the modules for commodity exporters.
November 18, 2024
Guidance Note On The Financing Assurances And Sovereign Arrears Policies And The Fund's Role In Debt Restructurings
Description: Under its Articles of Agreement, the Fund may only provide financing to assist members to resolve their balance of payments problems and restore medium-term external viability and may only do so under adequate safeguards. The Fund’s inter-related policies on financing assurances, debt sustainability, and debt restructuring are relevant for restoring medium-term external viability. This note is designed as a reference and primer on these key sovereign debt-related Fund policies. It focuses on how to establish that a program is “fully financed” (i.e., the financing assurances policy), how to handle arrears owed by a member to its official and private creditors (i.e., the lending into arrears policies), and how to establish safeguards for continued Fund lending at the stage of program reviews (i.e., financing assurances reviews). It also provides guidance on the more general role of the Fund in debt-restructuring situations. It is the first comprehensive operational guidance on these policies, replacing the guidance previously available at the departmental level. The relevant Fund Executive Board Decisions remain the primary legal authority on matters covered in this note.
November 8, 2024
Central Bank Digital Currency: Progress And Further Considerations
Description: The paper briefs the Executive Board on the further considerations on CBDC. These cover the positioning of CBDC in the payments landscape, cyber resilience of the CBDC ecosystem, CBDC adoption, CBDC data use and privacy protection, implications for monetary policy operations, and cross-border payments with retail CBDC.
November 7, 2024
Implementing Board-Endorsed Recommendations From The 2024 External Evaluation Of The Fund’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO)
Description: This paper describes implementation steps related to the board-endorsed recommendations from the Fourth External Evaluation of the Fund's Independent Evaluation Office (The Garcia Silva Report). The Garcia Silva Report brought recommendations in six areas to further improve the IEO’s relevance and effectiveness: (i) Undertaking Early-Stage Evaluations, (ii) Review the IEO’s HR Policy, (iii) Topic Selection, (iv) IEO Product Line, (v) Follow-up process, and (vi) Joint evaluations with other International Financial Institutions' evaluators. Recommendations (i-iv) fall under the IEO’s purview, and recommendation (vi) was not endorsed by the Executive Board. Therefore, this paper focuses on staff’s proposals to enhance the ownership in implementation and the follow-up of Board-endorsed IEO recommendations (recommendation v).
October 24, 2024
The Managing Director's Global Policy Agenda, Annual Meetings 2024: Secure A Soft Landing And Break From The Low Growth–High Debt Path
Description: The global economy has proven resilient, and a soft landing is within reach. Inflation has moderated thanks to tight monetary policy and fading supply shocks, and growth is expected to remain steady. But uncertainty remains significant, with risks tilted to the downside; medium-term growth prospects are lackluster; public debt has reached record highs and is expected to approach 100 percent of GDP by 2030; and geoeconomic fragmentation threatens to undo decades of gains from cross-border economic integration. At the same time, transformative changes—the green transition, demographic shifts, and digitalization, including artificial intelligence—are poised to reshape the global economy, creating challenges but also opportunities. Against this background, the key policy priorities are to secure a soft landing and break from the low growth-high debt path, and address other medium-term challenges. Monetary policy should ensure inflation returns durably to the target, and fiscal policy needs to decisively pivot toward consolidation to rebuild buffers and safeguard debt sustainability. Growth-enhancing reforms are urgently needed to lift growth prospects by boosting investment, job creation, and productivity. Domestic policies must be complemented by multilateral efforts to support countries with debt vulnerabilities, protect gains from economic integration, accelerate climate action, and harness benefits of new technologies while mitigating the risks. As it has done since its founding 80 years ago, the IMF will continue to adapt to serve its members with tailored policy advice, financial lifelines when needed, and capacity development. The Fund will remain a strong advocate for multilateralism and economic integration as foundations on which to build a resilient and inclusive global economy.
October 24, 2024
Progress Report to The IMFC on The Activities of The Independent Evaluation Office Of The IMF
Description: Since the 2024 Spring Meetings, the IEO finalized the evaluation on The Evolving Application of the IMF’s Mandate and launched a new evaluation on The IMF and Climate Change. The IEO has continued its progress on the ongoing evaluations of The IMF’s Exceptional Access Policy and the IMF Advice on Fiscal Policy. The IEO will develop an Evaluation Policy that addresses the recommendations of the Fourth External Evaluation of the IEO, which was concluded in July 2024.