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Europe > Iceland

You are looking at 1 - 7 of 7 items for :

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Iceland: 2021 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; Staff Statement; and Statement by the Executive Director for Iceland
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The Icelandic economy has been severely affected by the pandemic. Sharp tourism contraction and containment measures caused real GDP to plummet by 6.6 percent in 2020. A modest recovery will take hold in 2021. Recovery prospects in the tourism sector depend on control of the epidemic and progress in global and domestic vaccine distribution, spelling a challenging outlook with possibly deep medium-term scarring. Fiscal policy should continue to support the economy for now. Policy buffers accumulated over the last decade provided space for a large fiscal support and accommodated substantial automatic stabilizers. Additional stimulus is planned in 2021 to address still large slack in the economy, mitigate scarring, and provide confidence in the event of downside risks. Medium-term policies should ensure that public debt is firmly on a downward path, while limiting the drag on growth.
Keywords:
inflation expectation; notification band; family support benefit; monetary policy effort; fiscal policy mix; COVID-19; Tourism; Government finance statistics; Financial statistics; Currency markets; Global; Europe
Cover Policy Papers
2021 Comprehensive Surveillance Review— Background Paper on Traction
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
This paper presents traction as a multidimensional concept and discusses a comprehensive and complementary set of approaches to attempt to measure it based on the Fund’s value added to policy dialogue and formulation and public debate in member countries.
Keywords:
article IV advice; fund policy advice; fund advice; policy dialogue; IMF's transparency policy; COVID-19; Income; Financial Sector Assessment Program; Financial sector stability; Machine learning; Global
Cover Staff Discussion Notes
A Post-Pandemic Assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals
Ms. Dora Benedek
,
Mr. Edward R Gemayel
,
Mr. Abdelhak S Senhadji
, and
Alexander F. Tieman
The COVID-19 pandemic hit countries’ development agendas hard. The ensuing recession has pushed millions into extreme poverty and has shrunk government resources available for spending on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This Staff Discussion Note assesses the current state of play on funding SDGs in five key development areas: education, health, roads, electricity, and water and sanitation, using a newly developed dynamic macroeconomic framework.
Keywords:
Sustainable Development Goals, Development, Fiscal Policy, Structural Reform; policy option; composite index; case study countries' SDG spending; financing gap; SDG performance; analysis of development strategy; Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); COVID-19; Human capital; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Infrastructure; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Uzbekistan: 2021 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Uzbekistan embarked on an ambitious reform path in 2017, starting to liberalize its economy after years of state control. Incomes are still relatively low compared to other emerging economies. Uzbekistan entered the COVID-19 crisis with relatively strong macro-economic fundamentals.
Keywords:
Policy discussion; government transparency; Policy recommendation; IMF's transparency policy; macro-economic policies; Budget planning and preparation; Public and publicly-guaranteed external debt; COVID-19; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Chile: 2021 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Chile
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
The Chilean economy has been hit by the pandemic while recovering from the social unrest in late 2019, requiring substantial adjustment of economic policies and the appropriate use of existing policy buffers. Following a sharp decline in mid-2020, economic activity started recovering in 2020H2 in the wake of ample policy stimulus. Inflation remains near the policy target, with inflation expectations anchored, and the current account balance has improved amid a sharp drop in imports and relatively resilient exports. Fiscal and monetary policies remain guided by the structural fiscal balance rule and the inflation-targeting framework, respectively. Beyond the pandemic-related risks, there is uncertainty stemming from a series of elections and the outcome of a New Constitution process—scheduled to finish in mid-2022—which are expected to shape the public discourse and influence the policy agenda.
Keywords:
liability positions vis-à-vis nonresident; money market rate; inflation expectation; policy target; I. Policy response; COVID-19; Pension spending; Fiscal stance; Credit; Global
Cover Staff Discussion Notes
Insolvency Prospects Among Small-and-Medium-Sized Enterprises in Advanced Economies: Assessment and Policy Options
Mr. Federico J Diez
,
Mr. Romain A Duval
,
Jiayue Fan
,
Jose M Garrido
,
Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan
,
Chiara Maggi
,
Mr. Maria Soledad Martinez Peria
, and
Mr. Nicola Pierri
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased insolvency risks, especially among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are vastly overrepresented in hard-hit sectors. Without government intervention, even firms that are viable a priori could end up being liquidated—particularly in sectors characterized by labor-intensive technologies, threatening both macroeconomic and social stability. This staff discussion note assesses the impact of the pandemic on SME insolvency risks and policy options to address them. It quantifies the impact of weaker aggregate demand, changes in sectoral consumption patterns, and lockdowns on firm balance sheets and estimates the impact of a range of policy options, for a large sample of SMEs in (mostly) advanced economies.
Keywords:
Insolvency; Bankruptcy; “Quasi” Equity Injections; Small- and medium-size enterprises; COVID-19; insolvent firm; cash position; equity injection; illiquid firm; firm exit; cash flow; Solvency; Small and medium enterprises; Stocks; Financial statements; Southern Europe; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
Information and Inequality in the Time of a Pandemic
Allan Dizioli
and
Roberto Pinheiro
We introduce two types of agent heterogeneity in a calibrated epidemiological search model. First, some agents cannot afford staying home to minimize their virus exposure, while others can. Our results show that these poor agents bear most of the epidemic’s health costs. Moreover, we show that having more agents who do not change their behavior during the pandemic could lead to a deeper recession. Second, agents are heterogeneous in developing symptoms. We show that diseases with higher share of asymptomatic cases, even if less lethal, lead to worse health and economic outcomes. Public policies such as testing, quarantining, and lockdowns are particularly beneficial in economies with a larger share of poor agents. However, lockdowns lose effectiveness when part of the agents take precautions to minimize virus exposure independent of government actions.
Keywords:
WP; infection rate; asymptomatic infection; unconstrained agent; Bellman equation; time allocation; flow utility; arrival rate; infected agent; Labor supply; Public expenditure review; COVID-19; testing; asymptomaticity; inequality