Policy Papers
2017
September 7, 2017
Guidance for the Investment of Temporary Resources to Generate Income to Contribute to PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trusts
Description: On July 28, 2017, the Executive Board approved the following decision on the Investment of Temporary Resources to Generate Income to Contribute to PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trusts. This decision references the Guidelines for Investing PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trust Assets, which were adopted by the Executive Board on March 22, 2017. These Guidelines are also available to the public.
September 7, 2017
Guidelines for Investing PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trusts Assets
Description: On March 22, 2017, the Executive Board adopted the Guidelines for Investing PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trust Assets (the “Guidelines”) to establish the investment objectives and policies to guide the investment of assets of the PRG, PRG-HIPC, and CCR Trusts (the“Trusts”) which are available for investment under the Trusts’ instruments. These Guidelines are included in this document.
August 7, 2017
FY2017--Output Cost Estimates and Budget Outturn Paper
Description:
With continued efforts to maximize the use of available resources, the FY 17 outturn represents a small increase in spending within a largely flat budget envelope. Reallocations from lower priority areas and efficiency gains, along with flexibility provided by carry forward resources enabled the Fund to deliver on the initiatives and priorities in the Global Policy Agenda and Management’s Key Goals.
In terms of outputs, there was a small shift in spending from country and regional work to policy work. Within the former, spending moved from lending activities towards bilateral surveillance and capacity development. In terms of inputs, the structural budget was almost fully utilized.
Highlights are presented followed by a discussion of the outputs and inputs. Details on capacity development are presented in the Annex.
August 3, 2017
The 2017 Joint Review of the Standards and Codes Initiative
Description: The standards and codes (S&C) initiative was launched in the aftermath of the emerging market crises of the 1990s as part of efforts to strengthen the international financial architecture, with a focus on emerging markets. The initiative has aimed at promoting international standards and codes to improve economic and financial resilience by assisting countries in strengthening their economic institutions and informing World Bank and IMF work. The four previous reviews confirmed a fairly high appreciation of the overall initiative, while also raising questions about the initiative’s link to surveillance and capacity development efforts, weak uptake by market participants, as well as a need to improve traction with policy makers. This review reaffirms the country authorities’ appreciation for S&C work, and its focus and scope are guided by the February 2017 paper.
August 3, 2017
Negative Interest Rate Policies—Initial Experiences and Assessments
Description:
The depth of the crisis and the weakness of the ensuing recovery led to new ways
to implement monetary policy. At the onset of the crisis, central banks in several
advanced economies quickly moved policy rates to zero and initiated large-scale asset
purchases. In more recent years, with inflation still below target and limited support
from fiscal policy, several central banks lowered their policy rates below the previous
zero lower bound, embarking on so-called negative interest rate policies (NIRPs).
This paper explores the implications of NIRPs for monetary policy transmission
and banks’ behavior. It considers potential differences between interest rate cuts in
positive versus negative territory on deposit and lending rates, as well as banks’ interest
rate margins and profitability, and market functioning. The paper focuses on the bank
transmission channel, where differences between positive and negative policy rates
could arise. Finally, the paper reviews cross-country experiences through case studies.
August 2, 2017
The Role of the Fund in Governance Issues - Review of the Guidance Note - Preliminary Considerations - Background Notes
Description: The Background Notes in this Supplement provide essential context and analysis needed to understand the problem of governance and corruption, its impact on the economies of Fund members, and the history and nature of Fund engagement on these issues. They also seek to support the assessment of the Fund’s overall approach to promoting good governance and reducing corruption—including through the lenses of key stakeholders—with a view to identifying strength and closing any remaining gaps.
August 2, 2017
The Role of the Fund in Governance Issues - Review of the Guidance Note - Preliminary Considerations
Description: Following the request of the IMFC, this paper represents a first step in reassessing the Fund’s approach to tackling governance issues, the guidelines for which are contained in a 1997 Guidance Note. The paper examines the record of implementation of these guidelines in the period since the last such review was conducted in 2004, focusing on the handling of issues relating to corruption.
July 31, 2017
Collaboration Between Regional Financing Arrangements and the IMF
Description:
The Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) has expanded considerably since 2008, including
in the non-traditional elements of the safety net such as Regional Financing
Arrangements (RFAs). The resulting multi-layered structure of the GFSN makes
collaboration between its various elements more important than in the past.
Specifically, stronger collaboration between the Fund and RFAs would help increase the
effective firepower of the GFSN and ensure a timely deployment of resources. The
Fund’s experience in macroeconomic adjustment and its universal risk pooling would
combine with the greater regional knowledge and country ownership brought the RFA.
In this way, improved collaboration between the Fund and RFAs, including in
co-financing, would significantly reduce the risk of contagion by encouraging countries
to seek early assistance from the Fund.
This paper is part of a broader set of proposals to fortify the GFSN (IMF, 2017b, c, d). It
proposes both modalities for collaboration—across capacity development, surveillance,
and lending—and some operational principles to help guide future co-lending between
the Fund and the various RFAs. To date, the only operational guidance to facilitate
collaboration has been limited to the high-level 2011 G20 Principles for Cooperation
between the IMF and RFAs. Building on several case studies and the principles derived
from them, this paper proposes an operational framework for future engagement. It
aims to start a more structured dialogue between the Fund and individual RFAs on the
modalities of how best to work together.
July 28, 2017
Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust--2017 Borrowing Agreements with the Bank of Italy
Description: On July 17, 2017, the Fund, as Trustee of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT or Trust), entered into a new borrowing agreement (the “Agreement”) with the Bank of Italy (hereafter, Italy or Purchaser), by which Italy will provide new resources to the Extended Credit Facility Loan Account of the PRGT in the total amount of up to SDR 400 million