Archived Series > World Economic and Financial Surveys
Abstract
This study asseses trade liberalization in programs supported by the IMF by reviewing multiyear arrangements in the 1990s and six detailed case studies. It also discusses the main economic factors affecting trade policy targets.
Abstract
This study discusses the importance of export credits, their recent growth, and the trend toward more extensive reliance by official bilateral creditors on export credits as an instrument of financial support, and raises a number of issues regarding the role and limitations of export credit financing, espeically for economies in transition.
Abstract
The global trend toward lilberalization in countries international payments and transfer systems has been widespread in both industrial and developing countries and most dramatic in Central and Eastern Europe. Countries in general have brought their exchange systems more in line with market principles and moved toward more flexible exchange rate arrangements. This study updates previous studies published under the title Developments in International Exchange and Payments Systems.
Abstract
This paper focuses mainly on official bilateral and multilateral financing for countries that have rescheduled their debts to official bilateral creditors. In contrast to the approaches taken by private lenders, official creditors have continued to provide new financing on a large scale to countries with debt-servicing difficulties that implement adjustment and reform programs. Financial support bas been provided through a wide variety of instruments and channels. For the low-income rescheduling countries as a group, total financial assistance has been about as large as these countries' own export earnings in every year since 1986. The recent trends in official financing have important ramifications for developing countries. Access to external financing from official sources is likely to remain high for those countries whose adjustment and reform efforts provide assurances that resources will be used efficiently. Conversely, countries with uneven records of policy implementation (particularly as regards payments arrears) are likely to find difficulty in attracting financial support.
Abstract
This paper emphasizes on the policy reaction of the agencies and their authorities to countries in various stages of debt-servicing difficulties. Export credit agencies have, over the past few years, been adopting a progressively more open stance. This is true with respect to short-term cover generally and, with respect to medium-term cover, for countries that have rescheduled their debts but are implementing adjustment programs and adhering to Paris Club agreements. Despite the more open stance, the volume of new medium-term credit and cover commitments to developing countries appears to have fallen off sharply over the past two years. Although for some debtors the operative constraint is clearly on the supply of new credits and cover, this is not the general case and, indeed, agencies reported net repayments from some countries for which they were wide open for new business. A number of agencies also considered that a factor behind the decline in both investment and export credits to support that investment could be the terms on which such credits are available.
Abstract
This paper describes developments in multilateral official debt renegotiations over the 18 months through December 1987. The most important new departure in multilateral official debt renegotiations was the adaptation of policies by Paris Club creditors in response to the protracted problems of the poorest and most heavily indebted countries at the same time that other initiatives were launched for low-income countries, including the proposal for enhancement of the IMF’s structural adjustment facility. Official creditors have generally preserved concessional interest rates in the restructuring of official development assistance (ODA) loans; moreover, for the poorest debtors, some creditors have converted such loans into grants. The question of interest concessions on other categories of debts rescheduled by the Paris Club was raised, inter alia, by the Venice summit but no consensus exists among creditors for changing the current practice. By regularly excluding short-term debt from reschedulings, debtors and creditors have also frequently succeeded in protecting the flow of short-term trade financing, which is often vital to the financing of an IMF-supported program.
Abstract
This paper emphasizes on the policy reaction of the agencies and their authorities to countries in various stages of debt-servicing difficulties. It was found that, largely for competitive reasons and provided that significant arrears had not emerged, agencies as a group had tended to remain quite open for debtors pursuing policies that could be expected to lead to payments difficulties, thus facilitating the postponement of necessary adjustment by the debtor and increasing the likelihood of eventual debt-servicing difficulties. Despite this more open stance, the volume of new medium-term credit and cover commitments to developing countries appears to have fallen off sharply over the past two years. Although for some debtors the operative constraint is clearly on the supply of new credits and cover, this is not the general case and, indeed, agencies reported net repayments from some countries for which they were wide open for new business.