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International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper estimates potential output growth and the output gap for Guatemala. Potential output growth averaged 4.4 percent just before the global financial crisis but has since declined to 3.75 percent owing to lower capital accumulation and total factor productivity (TFP) growth. It is estimated at 3.8 percent in 2016, and the output gap has virtually closed. Potential growth is expected to reach 4 percent in the medium term owing to the expected improvements in TFP growth. Policies should also prioritize mobilizing domestic savings to invest and build a higher capital stock.
International Monetary Fund
Peru’s fiscal framework embedded in the Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency Law (FRTL) has proved to be effective in reducing debt. The FRTL embodies some countercyclical elements in response to output or commodity price shocks. The combination of a provision for a moderate deficit on the downside, and a current expenditure cap on the upside, allows for some countercyclical policy. It still has pockets of procyclicality in the face of large shocks to output or commodity prices.
International Monetary Fund
The status report on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) of the Central African Republic showed substantial progress. IMF staff welcomed peace and security consolidation and strong macroeconomic framework under the economic program. They emphasized the need for strengthening the linkages between some of the sectoral and national strategies. They stressed the need for a strategy for monitoring and evaluation of the system, and financing to implement the strategy. They concur that success of the PRSP will be a challenge amidst security issues and financial constraints.
Carl-Johan Dalgaard
and
Mr. Lennart Erickson
The First Millennium Development Goal (MDG#1) is to cut the fraction of global population living on less than one dollar per day in half, by 2015. Foreign aid financed investments may contribute to the attainment of this goal. But how much can aid be reasonably expected to accomplish? A widespread calibration approach to answering this question is to employ the so-called development planning technique, which has the Harrod-Domar growth model at its base. Two particularly problematic assumptions in this sort of analysis are the absence of diminishing returns to capital input and an infinite speed of adjustment to steady state after a shock to the economy. We remove both of these assumptions by employing a Solow model as an organizing framework for an otherwise similar analysis. We find that in order to successfully meet the MDG#1 in the context of the currently proposed aid flows, these flows will have to be accompanied by either an acceleration in the underlying productivity growth rate or a major boost to domestic savings and investment in sub-Saharan Africa. In the absence of such changes in the economic environment, the MDG#1 is unlikely to be reached.
Mr. Kevin J Carey
,
Mr. Sanjeev Gupta
, and
Ms. Catherine A Pattillo

Abstract

Growth in sub-Saharan Africa has recently shown signs of improvement, but is still short of levels needed to attain the Millennium Development Goals. Economists have placed increasing emphasis on understanding the policies that promote sustained jumps in medium-term growth, and the paper applies this approach to African countries. The evidence presented finds an important growth-supporting role for particular kinds of institutions and policies, but also highlights aspects of growth that are still not well understood. The paper includes policy guidance for ensuring that the poor benefit from growth.

Mr. Alex Mourmouras
and
Mr. Peter Rangazas
The econometric literature has been unable to establish a robust association between foreign aid and growth and poverty reduction. In this paper we argue that aid effectiveness must be assessed using methods that go beyond cross-country regressions. We calibrate a dynamic general equilibrium model that is capable of generating large income gaps between rich and poor countries. The model quantifies three sources of poverty: (i) lack of access to international capital, (ii) low schooling and high fertility (a poverty trap), and (iii) antigrowth domestic fiscal policy. We analyze policies designed to address each source of poverty and estimate and compare the aid cost of implementing the different policies. The policies differ dramatically in the extent and timing of their growth effects, and in the aid cost of their implementation.
Mr. Volker Treichel
Since 1995, Tanzania has made major progress in economic reform and macroeconomic stabilization, resulting in strong growth and low inflation. This paper reviews Tanzania's growth performance and prospects and assesses the impact of growth on poverty. It finds that growth has been increasingly driven by higher factor productivity and that a continuation of recent policies should allow Tanzania to grow above 5 percent a year over the medium term. Furthermore, it finds that growth since 1995 has resulted in a significant decline of poverty and that prospects are favorable for Tanzania to attain its objectives for reducing income poverty by 2015.
International Monetary Fund. External Relations Dept.
Leaders of the Group of Eight countries gathered in Kananaskis, Canada, June 26–27, for a summit that focused on terrorism, the global economy, and building a new partnership for Africa’s development. It was their first meeting since the terrorist attacks of September 11. It was announced that Russia, which since 1997 has participated in summit meetings with the Group of Seven immediately following the annual G-7 summits, and which this year participated more fully as a member of the summit group, will in 2006 assume the presidency of the G-8 and host the summit. The June 2003 summit will be held in France.