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Business and Economics > Finance: General

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Jordan: 2024 Article IV Consultation, Second Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Jordan
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This paper discusses IMF’s 2024 Article IV Consultation, Second Review under the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility, and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria for Jordan. Jordan continues to show resilience and maintain macro-economic stability, despite the headwinds caused by the regional conflict. This resilience reflects the authorities’ continued implementation of sound macro-economic policies and reform progress. Inflation is projected to remain low, at about 2 percent, reflecting the Central Bank of Jordan’s firm commitment to monetary stability and the exchange rate peg. Jordan’s external position remains relatively strong. Bringing the Jordanian economy onto a higher growth trajectory is essential to create more jobs and raise prosperity. This requires accelerating structural reforms, while maintaining macro-economic stability. Strong and timely international support also remains crucial to help Jordan navigate through the external headwinds, while shouldering the costs of hosting a large number of Syrian refugees.
Keywords:
digitalizing government service; Jordanian authorities; executive board assessment; pandemic preparedness; authority of the Competition Department; development objective; Gender inequality; Fiscal stance; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Gender Inequality in the WAEMU: Current Situation and Opportunities
Can Sever
This paper documents the current state of gender inequalities in the WAEMU by focusing on outcomes (health, education, labor market and financial inclusion) and opportunities (economic rights). The findings show that despite significant progress toward gender equality over the last three decades, there are still prevalent gender-based disparities, which prevent women from fulfilling their economic potential. Both empirical and model-based estimates suggest that the WAEMU can reap substantial economic gains by mitigating the existing gender gaps in schooling and labor market outcomes. Hence, achieving gender equality remains a macro-critical goal for the region. Going forward, the need for specific policies supportive of gender equality may vary in each member country, but a multifaceted and holistic approach is needed to unleash the related economic potential in the WAEMU as a whole.
Keywords:
gender inequality; B. gender inequalities in the WAEMU; IMF WAEMU; C. economic gains; WAEMU lag; Gender inequality; Women; Financial inclusion; Gender diversity; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Interim Guidance Note on Mainstreaming Gender at The IMF
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
This interim note provides general guidance on the operationalization of the IMF’s Strategy Toward Mainstreaming Gender. It offers a comprehensive overview of how IMF staff can integrate macrocritical gender issues into the IMF’s core areas of surveillance, lending, and capacity development. Key topics include i) identifying and assessing macrocritical gender gaps; ii) the “light touch” and “deep dive” approaches; iii) early insights on integrating gender into IMF-supported programs; iv) capacity development on gender or with a gender lens; v) synergies with other workstreams and vi) the importance of collaboration. It also includes summaries and links to relevant tools, databases, IMF staff reports, and relevant literature.
Keywords:
Gender; Equality; Inclusion; Surveillance; Lending; Capacity Development; Fiscal Policy; Labor Market; Macroeconomics/Macroeconomic Policy; transparency policy; gender-disaggregated analysis; IMF country office; gender wage gap; implementation capacity; SPR staff; IMF strategy Toward Mainstreaming Gender; labor force participation; IMF team; IMF gender; equal pay; Gender inequality; Women; Gender diversity; Income inequality; Financial inclusion; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Lawful Progress: Unveiling the Laws That Reshape Women’s Work Decisions
Anna Fruttero
,
Diego B. P. Gomes
, and
Nishtha Sharma
This paper examines the impact of women’s legal rights on labor force participation decisions made by women and men through a granular analysis of 35 gendered laws. Building on previous literature, it departs from the analysis using aggregate indices due to concerns about (i) the usability of an index for policymaking purposes, (ii) the economic interpretation of an index’s average marginal effects, (iii) and the implicit assumption of homogeneous effects underlying regressions with an index. The findings identify nine key laws that can foster female labor force participation. Notably, laws related to household dynamics and women’s agency within the family, such as divorce and property rights laws, and laws regarding the ability of women to travel outside the home, are especially important in influencing their decision to work. The paper also shows that improving women’s legal rights does not improve their labor force participation through a substitution effect as it has no systematic negative effect on men’s labor force participation.
Keywords:
Gender gaps; Gendered laws; Legal barriers; Labor force participation; property rights law; LFP rate; selected Laws; women's work decision; gendered law; Women; Gender inequality; Labor force; Financial inclusion; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Women in Fintech: As Leaders and Users
Purva Khera
,
Ms. Sumiko Ogawa
,
Ms. Ratna Sahay
, and
Mahima Vasishth
While digital financial services have made access to finance easier, faster, and less costly, helping to broaden digital financial inclusion, its impact on gender gaps varies across countries. Moreover, women leaders in the fintech industry, although growing, remain scarce. This paper explores the interaction between ‘women’ and ‘fintech’ by examining: (i) the role of women leaders on firm-level performance in the fintech industry; and (ii) the determinants of gender gaps in the usage of digital services to better understand the cross-country differences. Results indicate that greater gender diversity in the executive board is associated with better performance of fintech firms.With regard to determinants of the gender gaps in the usage of digital financial services, we find that higher financial and digital literacy of women is associated with lower gender gaps in digital financial inclusion, and that socio-cultural factors also play a key role.
Keywords:
Firm Performance; Women Leaders; Digital Financial Inclusion; Financial Literacy; Digital Literacy; women leader; share of firm; C. gender gaps; Fintech firm; Women; Gender inequality; Financial inclusion; Gender diversity; Fintech; Middle East and Central Asia; Digital financial services
Cover IMF Working Papers
Fintech: Financial Inclusion or Exclusion?
Yoke Wang Tok
and
Dyna Heng
This paper examines the role of Fintech in financial inclusion. Using Global Findex data and emerging fintech indicators, we find that Fintech has a higher positive correlation with digital financial inclusion than traditional measures of financial inclusion. In the second stage of our empirical investigation, we examine the key factors that are correlated with the Fletcher School’s three digital divide – gender divide, class (rich-poor) divide and rural divide. The results indicate that greater use of fintech is significantly associated with a narrowing of the class divide and rural divide but there was no impact on the gender divide. These findings imply that Fintech alone may not be sufficient to close the gender gap in access to financial services. Fintech development may need to be complemented with targeted policy initiatives aimed at addressing the gender gap directly, and at changing attitudes and social norms across demographics.
Keywords:
Fintech; Financial Inclusion; Financial Development; Inequality; Fintech development; class divide; role of Fintech; appendix A. data definition; Fintech proxy; Digital financial services; Gender inequality; Mobile banking; East Asia; Caribbean; Asia and Pacific; Global; Middle East; Southeast Asia
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Kenya: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
Selected Issues
Keywords:
trading environment; D. policy effort; gender imbalance; wage employment; market share; Exports; Women; Gender inequality; Competition; Global; Africa; East Africa; Southern Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover The Global Informal Workforce
The Global Informal Workforce
Priorities for Inclusive Growth
International Monetary Fund

Abstract

The Global Informal Workforce is a fresh look at the informal economy around the world and its impact on the macroeconomy. The book covers interactions between the informal economy, labor and product markets, gender equality, fiscal institutions and outcomes, social protection, and financial inclusion. Informality is a widespread and persistent phenomenon that affects how fast economies can grow, develop, and provide decent economic opportunities for their populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to uncover the vulnerabilities of the informal workforce.

Keywords:
shadow economy; shadow economy activity; size of the informal economy; bank competition; size of the shadow economy; Informal economy; Mobile banking; Financial inclusion; Women; Labor markets; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; Caribbean; South America; Central America
Cover Policy Papers
Categorization Of Open Actions In Management Implementation Plans
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, &amp
and
Review Department
This paper undertakes a triage of the backlog of open actions in Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) responding to recommendations by the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), based on the Framework endorsed by the Board in March 2019.
Keywords:
PP; IEO recommendation; Categorization paper; PMR cycle; diversity; monitoring mechanism; further consultation; further monitoring; Gender diversity; Financial sector; Financial Sector Assessment Program; Debt sustainability analysis; Global
Cover Staff Discussion Notes
Work In Progress: Improving Youth Labor Market Outcomes in Emerging Market and Developing Economies
Mr. JaeBin Ahn
,
Zidong An
,
Mr. John C Bluedorn
,
Gabriele Ciminelli
,
Zsoka Koczan
,
Mr. Davide Malacrino
,
Daniela Muhaj
, and
Patricia Neidlinger
Economic development and growth depend on a country’s young people. With most of their working life ahead of them they make up about a third of the working-age population in the typical emerging market and developing economy. But the youth in these economies face a daunting labor market—about 20 percent of them are neither employed, in school, nor in training (the youth inactivity rate). This is double the share in the average advanced economy. Were nothing else to change, bringing youth inactivity in these economies down to what it is in advanced economies and getting those inactive young people into new jobs would have a striking effect. The working-age employment rate in the average emerging market and developing economy would rise more than 3 percentage points, and real output would get a 5 percent boost.
Keywords:
SDN; developing economy; youth labor market prospect; product market; employment rate; economies fall; labor market flexibility; protection legislation; youth labor markets; emerging market and developing economies; Okun’s law; labor and product market institutions; structural reforms; youth employment; labor market outcome; formality rise; labor market characteristic; labor market challenge; job formality; youth labor market outcome; job quality; job prospect; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Employment; Labor markets; Minimum wages; Women; Central Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; East Asia; South Asia