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Business and Economics > Finance: General

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Cover Policy Papers
Review Of Charges And The Surcharge Policy— A Possible Reform Package
International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
and
International Monetary Fund. Policy Development and Review Dept.
On October 11, 2024, the IMF’s Executive Board concluded the Review of Charges and the Surcharge Policy. The review is part of a broader ongoing effort to ensure that the IMF’s lending policies remain fit for purpose to meet the evolving needs of the membership. Charges and surcharges are important elements of the IMF’s cooperative lending and risk-management framework, where all members contribute and all can benefit from support when needed. Together, they cover lending intermediation expenses, help accumulate reserves to protect against financial risks, and provide incentives for prudent and temporary borrowing. This provides a strong financial foundation that allows the IMF to extend vital balance of payments support on affordable terms to member countries when they need it most.



Against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment and high global interest rates, the Executive Board reached consensus on a comprehensive package of reforms that substantially reduces the cost of borrowing for members while safeguarding the IMF's financial capacity to support countries in need. The approved measures will lower IMF borrowing costs by about US$1.2 billion annually or reduce payments on the margin of the rate of charge as well as surcharges on average by 36 percent. The number of countries subject to surcharges in fiscal year 2026 is expected to fall from 20 to 13.



Key reforms include a reduction in the margin for the rate of charge, an increase in the threshold for level-based surcharges, a reduction in rate for time-based surcharges, an alignment of thresholds for commitment fees with annual and cumulative access limits for GRA lending facilities, and institution of regular reviews of surcharges.



The series of three papers informed the Executive Board’s first and second informal engagements (July and September 2024) and the formal meeting (October 2024) on this review.
Keywords:
General Resources Account; Charges; Margin for the basic rate of charge; Surcharges; Commitment Fees; Precautionary Balances; Income; reform package; transparency policy; EMBIG market spread; IMF's transparency policy; Fund credit; desk survey; Credit; SDR interest rate; Credit risk; Return on investment; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Role of IMF Arrangements in Restoring Access to International Capital Markets
Joseph Kogan
,
Romina Kazandjian
,
Shijia Luo
,
Moustapha Mbohou
, and
Hui Miao
Using a database of emerging market fundamentals and bond index spreads across 56 frontier and emerging market countries rated below investment grade during the period 2002-22, we assess whether IMF arrangements can restore access to international capital markets (ICM) for countries in distress through liquidity and conditionality channels. We find that global financial conditions and debt/GDP are the most important determinants of access to ICM within the horizon of a typical IMF arrangement. Using an event study methodology, we show that spreads increase prior to the start of an IMF arrangement and then decrease gradually. By exploiting different characteristics of IMF arrangements, we find evidence that the reforms implemented under the IMF arrangement, as measured by rounds of successful IMF reviews, matter more in the medium term than the IMF’s role as a liquidity provider. These results are consistent with our analysis of 55 credit rating upgrades to ICM access levels, which suggests that debt reduction plays the largest role and that IMF arrangements lend credibility to reforms.
Keywords:
International capital markets; market access; IMF; debt crisis; debt rescheduling; default; sovereign debt; sovereign debt restructuring; sovereign bonds; Eurobonds; IMF arrangement; IMF review; IMF working paper 2024/173; capital markets department; IMF effect; Credit ratings; Bonds; Current account balance; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Costa Rica: 2023 Article IV Consultation, Fifth Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, Second Review Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, and Request for Modification of Reform Measure
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper discusses Costa Rica’s 2023 Article IV Consultation, Fifth Review under the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), Second Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), and Request for Modification of Reform Measure. Costa Rica is reaping the benefits from the home-grown reform program. In order to institutionalize progress, it is critical to continue adhering to the existing fiscal framework, restrain foreign exchange intervention, ensure compliance with the Public Employment Law, and restart central bank autonomy and governance reform. The authorities should continue pursuing improvements to the central bank’s governance and autonomy. While the central bank is conducting monetary policy in an independent manner, these practices should be institutionalized through legislation. It is critical that the central bank’s autonomy and other areas of improvements recommended in the 2020 Safeguards Assessment that remain unaddressed be followed up in a steadfast manner. Performance under the EFF and the RSF arrangements remains strong. All quantitative performance criteria have been met for this review, although the June Indicative Target on public debt was exceeded as the government took advantage of favorable market conditions to build liquidity buffers.
Keywords:
RSF arrangement; FX operations; IMF Resilience and Sustainability Facility arrangement; climate change resilience recovery; headline inflation; decarbonization effort; Climate change; External sector statistics; Government finance statistics; Inflation; Central America; Global; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Stress and Economic Activity: Evidence from a New Worldwide Index
Hites Ahir
,
Mr. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia
,
Davide Furceri
,
Mr. Chris Papageorgiou
, and
Hanbo Qi
This paper uses text analysis to construct a continuous financial stress index (FSI) for 110 countries over each quarter during the period 1967-2018. It relies on a computer algorithm along with human expert oversight and is thus easy to update. The new indicator has a larger country and time coverage and higher frequency than similar measures focusing on advanced economies. And it complements existing binary chronologies in that it can assess the severity of financial crises. We use the indicator to assess the impact of financial stress on the economy using both country- and firm-level data. Our main findings are fivefold: i) consistent with existing literature, we show an economically significant and persistent relationship between financial stress and output; ii) the effect is larger in emerging markets and developing economies and (iii) for higher levels of financial stress; iv) we deal with simultaneous causality by constructing a novel instrument—financial stress originating from other countries—using information from the text analysis, and show that, while there is clear evidence that financial stress harms economic activities, OLS estimates tend to overestimate the magnitude of this effect; (iv) we confirm the presence of an exogenous effect of financial stress through a difference-in-differences exercise and show that effects are larger for firms that are more financially constrained and less profitable.
Keywords:
Financial stress; text analysis; country reports; continuous indicator; country and firm economic activity.; firm economic activity; effect of FSI; financial crises episode; Financial soundness indicators; Banking crises; Reserve requirements; Global financial crisis of 2008-2009; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Brazil: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper focuses on challenges and options for reform in Brazil. This paper discusses options to build on the new fiscal rule and enhance the fiscal framework. The new rule’s focus on revenues carries important implementation risks, and consolidation that is more ambitious is needed to achieve a downward debt path. Building on Brazil’s and cross-country experience with fiscal frameworks, this paper proposes options to build on the new fiscal rule and enhance the fiscal framework. The new proposed fiscal rule addresses important priorities of the new government and offers opportunities for gradual fiscal consolidation over an extended horizon, but important challenges remain. There is scope to shape a more comprehensive and integrated fiscal framework, leveraging specific advantages of rules. Further considerations to refine the proposed new fiscal rule include ensuring consistency of the spending rule and the primary balance targets, while making the latter more binding. The existing fiscal framework would also benefit from a strong fiscal anchor that puts debt on a firmly declining path, rebuilds buffers, and embeds a medium-term perspective. Further options to strengthen the framework include addressing the procyclical bias, coupled with institutionalizing the escape clause and considering a mechanism to smooth commodity revenues, and hardening budget constraints for subnational governments.
Keywords:
policy option; spending measure; implementation challenge; alternative investment scenario; climate strategy; Fiscal rules; Fiscal governance; Fiscal stance; Global; Caribbean; Europe
Cover Policy Papers
FY2024-FY2026 Medium-Term Budget
International Monetary Fund. Office of Budget and Planning
FY2024-FY2026 Medium-Term Budget
Keywords:
budget framework; administrative budget; external funding; capital budget; A. budget overview; management fee; augmentation framework; Medium-Term capital budget; Budget planning and preparation; Budget execution and treasury management; Digital currencies; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Guatemala: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Selected Issues
Keywords:
export development; income quintile; export complexity; export determinant; International Monetary Fund Washington, d.c; Exports; Inflation; Food prices; Export performance; Consumer price indexes; Global; Central America; East Asia; North America; Caribbean
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Colombia: Financial Sector Assessment Program–Detailed Assessment of Observance of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
There have been significant improvements to the legal framework and the supervisory process since the last Basel Core Principles (BCP) review; some additional recommended enhancements are highlighted in this assessment. The Superintendency of Financial Institutions (SFC) is an integrated supervisor with a purview that includes banks, finance companies, insurance, securities, and other financial intermediaries. Additionally, the SFC is also the bank resolution authority. To strengthen consolidated supervision, Congress passed Financial Conglomerates Law (FCL) 1870 addressing the supervision of financial conglomerates and granting the SFC supervisory authority over financial conglomerates (CF).2 The FCL strengthened the framework for consolidated supervision, which already included banks and their subsidiaries, by adding holding companies as supervised entities. Moreover, it defined the scope of supervision of financial conglomerates, setting standards with regards to risk management, adequate capital, and corporate governance, as well as minimum requirements for managing concentration risks and conflicts of interest in intragroup and related party exposures. The SFC has strong coordination and cooperation arrangements with foreign supervisors (through signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and the coordination mechanisms derived from the CCSBSO, among others) as well as the authority to request information from parent companies, all of which were further enhanced with the issuance of the FCL. Additionally, the SFC has access and authority to require information from ultimate beneficial owners.
Keywords:
IMF-World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program; credit risk Management System; risk profile; Sistema de Administración de Riesgo de Liquidez; Tier 1; staff team of the International Monetary Fund; Credit; Credit risk; Market risk; Operational risk; Financial statements; Central America; Global; South America
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
El Salvador: 2021 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for El Salvador
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The pandemic interrupted ten years of growth, but El Salvador is rebounding quickly. Robust external demand, resilient remittances, and a sound management of the pandemic—with the help of a disbursement under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) (SDR287.2 million or US$389 million) approved in April 2020—are supporting a strong recovery. Persistent fiscal deficits and high debt service are leading to large and increasing gross fiscal financing needs.
Keywords:
Salvadorian authorities; authorities of El Salvador; anti-smuggling plan; government finance statistics manual; El Salvador's authorities; authorities' estimate; Virtual currencies; International reserves; Currencies; Remittances; Central America; Caribbean; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Preemptive Policies and Risk-Off Shocks in Emerging Markets
Ms. Mitali Das
,
Ms. Gita Gopinath
, and
Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan
We show that “preemptive” capital flow management measures (CFM) can reduce emerging markets and developing countries’ (EMDE) external finance premia during risk-off shocks, especially for vulnerable countries. Using a panel dataset of 56 EMDEs during 1996–2020 at monthly frequency, we document that countries with preemptive policies in place during the five year window before risk-off shocks experienced relatively lower external finance premia and exchange rate volatility during the shock compared to countries which did not have such preemptive policies in place. We use the episodes of Taper Tantrum and COVID-19 as risk-off shocks. Our identification relies on a difference-in-differences methodology with country fixed effects where preemptive policies are ex-ante by construction and cannot be put in place as a response to the shock ex-post. We control the effects of other policies, such as monetary policy, foreign exchange interventions (FXI), easing of inflow CFMs and tightening of outflow CFMs that are used in response to the risk-off shocks. By reducing the impact of risk-off shocks on countries’ funding costs and exchange rate volatility, preemptive policies enable countries’ continued access to international capital markets during troubled times.
Keywords:
Preemptive policies; UIP; external finance premia; risk-off shocks; FX debt; Risk-Off shock; risk-off shock; exchange rate volatility; MPM policy; Capital flow management; Macroprudential policy instruments; Interest rate parity; Capital inflows; Global; Africa