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Middle East and Central Asia > Jordan

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Cover Policy Papers
Temporary Modification to the Fund's Annual Access Limits
International Monetary Fund
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a uniquely severe synchronized shock across the global economy, in turn leading numerous member countries to request substantial financial assistance from the Fund. The Executive Board responded to members’ needs by increasing the access limits under the Fund’s emergency financing instruments by 50 percent of quota for a period of 6 months (until October 5, 2020), subject to a possible extension by the Executive Board.
Keywords:
PP; emergency financing instrument; financial support; financing; RFI purchase; IMF's executive board; Gra credit; risk management framework; application of the NAAL; Emergency assistance; Credit; Balance of payments need; Global; COVID-19
Cover Finance & Development
Finance & Development, December 2017
International Monetary Fund. External Relations Dept.
This paper analyzes that although demands for political transformation commanded the world’s attention, those calls were largely motivated by unresolved socioeconomic issues. Demonstrators in the streets of Cairo and Tunis demanding bread, dignity, and social justice expressed widely held aspirations for basic economic rights, along with greater prosperity and equity. Almost seven years later, notable progress has been achieved in terms of public finance reforms. However, these reforms still have a long way to go to reduce disparities in the distribution of wealth within most countries of the region or narrow the development gaps between them. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa now face a stark choice between short-term retrenchment and resolute pursuit of the long-term reforms needed to secure their future economic prosperity. Forsaking important economic adjustments needed to strengthen inclusive growth and modernize the state and private sectors would set the region back, possibly for decades.
Keywords:
FD; F&D; iron lid; country; oil-producing country; economy; development issue; government policy; paperback ISBN 978-1-51359-036-3; Oil; Women; Energy subsidies; Capital flows; Currencies; Global; Middle East; North Africa; East Africa; Africa; Climate change; oil discovery; Oil prices
Cover IMF Working Papers
What’s Different about Monetary Policy Transmission in Remittance-Dependent Countries?
Mr. Adolfo Barajas
,
Mr. Ralph Chami
,
Mr. Christian H Ebeke
, and
Anne Oeking
Despite welfare and poverty-reducing benefits for recipient households, remittance inflows have been shown to entail macroeconomic challenges; producing Dutch Disease-type effects through their upward (appreciation) pressure on real exchange rates, reducing the quality of institutions, delaying fiscal adjustment, and ultimately having an indeterminate effect on long-run growth. The paper explores an additional challenge, for monetary policy. Although they expand bank balance sheets, providing a stable flow of interest-insensitive funding, remittances tend to increase banks’ holdings of liquid assets. This both reduces the need for an interbank market and severs the link between the policy rate and banks’ marginal costs of funds, thus shutting down a major transmission channel. We develop a stylized model based on asymmetric information and a lack of transparent borrowers and undertake econometric analysis providing evidence that increased remittance inflows are associated with a weaker transmission. As independent monetary policy becomes impaired, this result is consistent with earlier findings that recipient countries tend to favor fixed exchange rate regimes.
Keywords:
WP; monetary policy; bank balance; excess reserves; Worker’s Remittances; lending channel; banking sector; remittance inflow; bank lending channel; recipient country; threshold remittance ratio; remittance flow; bank competitiveness; Remittances; Central bank policy rate; Bank credit; Financial statements; Competition; Global
Cover IEO Annual Report 2015
IEO Annual Report 2015
International Monetary Fund. Independent Evaluation Office

Abstract

The twelfth Annual Report of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) describes activities during financial year 2015 (May 1, 2014–April 30, 2015). During the financial year, the IEO completed an evaluation of the IMF response to the global financial and economic crisis. It also issued two reports updating three past evaluations: The IMF’s Approach to Capital Account Liberalization: Revisiting the 2005 IEO Evaluation; and Revisiting the IEO Evaluations of the IMF’s Role in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) (2004) and the IEO Evaluation of IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (2007). In addition, the Executive Board discussed the IEO evaluation of Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation: Lessons for the IMF, which was issued to the Board in FY2014. The paper reports on the IEO budget and outreach efforts in the financial year. This paper also summarizes the evaluations on Recurring Issues and the IMF Response to the Financial and Economic Crisis, the Board discussions of these evaluations, and the two updates of past evaluations. It also discusses follow-up on IEO evaluations and addresses ongoing evaluations and the IEO work program going forward. A table lists the IEO evaluations and evaluation updates completed or in progress.

Keywords:
IEOR; IEO; evaluation; IEO evaluation; financial crisis; IEO FY2016; IMF performance; IMF response; evaluation update; budget proposal; Capital account liberalization; Capital flows; Capital flow management; Internal audit; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover Policy Papers
Arab Countries in Transition - Economic Outlook and Key Challenges
International Monetary Fund
The Arab Countries in Transition (ACTs) have had diverging trajectories over the past year and face an uncertain outlook.1 Improvements in the European economy, lower oil prices, and some progress on the policy front have provided tailwinds to growth, which is expected to pick up significantly in Egypt and Morocco. At the same time, unemployment remains high. Moreover, several of the ACTs have also suffered from intensifying and spreading conflicts that cause widespread human suffering and sizeable economic challenges. Libya and Yemen are directly affected, while spillovers from these conflicts and the civil wars in Iraq and Syria weigh on Jordan and Tunisia, as well as other countries in the region (e.g., Lebanon, Djibouti), Turkey and Europe. These spillovers come most prominently in the form of large refugee flows, deteriorating security, and pressures on economic infrastructures and labor markets. All these factors add urgency to the need in the Arab countries to strengthen economic resilience and address long-standing sources of inequity and exclusion. Coordinated and scaled-up support from the international community will be also critical in stabilizing conditions in the region, addressing the refugee crisis, and securing a more promising economic future for the ACTs in this challenging environment.
Keywords:
PP; government; deficit; financing; country; General government balance; budget deficit; job creation; exchange rate; labor market; economic activity; excl. grant; GDP growth; Current account deficits; Inflation; Government debt management; Oil prices; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Jordan: Sixth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement, Request for Waivers of Applicability of Performance Criteria, and Rephasing of Access
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This paper discusses Jordan’s Sixth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement, Request for Waivers of Applicability of Performance Criteria (PC), and Rephasing of Access. PC Program performance remains broadly on course. All end-March 2015 PCs are expected to be met. Structural performance saw improvement, including the pre-approval of a credit bureau and the establishment of a new public investment framework. There is an urgent need for broad-based policy actions in the labor market to put the unemployed into jobs, increase female labor force participation, and reform public-sector compensation and hiring practices. The IMF staff supports the completion of the sixth review and the related purchase.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; reform public sector hiring; indirect cost; oil price; executive board's discussion; hosting refugee; labor market participation; Oil prices; Government debt management; Credit; Current account; Global; Middle East; Europe; Africa
Cover IEO Annual Report 2014
IEO Annual Report 2014
International Monetary Fund. Independent Evaluation Office

Abstract

The 2014 Annual Report of the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund.

Keywords:
IEOR; IEO; evaluation; IEO evaluation; IEO FY2015; IEO work program; budget proposal; IMF statistics; IEO budget; IEO's objective; Capital account liberalization; Fiscal consolidation; Poverty reduction strategy; Budget planning and preparation; Human capital; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Economic Impact of Selected Conflicts in the Middle East: What Can We Learn from the Past?
Miss Randa Sab
Using narrative-based country-case studies, war episodes in the Middle East were examined to assess their economic impact on conflict and neighboring economies. The paper found that conflicts led to a contraction in growth, higher inflation, large fiscal and current account deficits, loss of reserves, and a weakened financial system. Post-conflict recovery depended on the economic and institutional development of the country, economic structure, duration of the war, international engagement, and prevailing security conditions. The net economic impact on neighboring countries varied according to their initial economic conditions, number and income level of refugees they hosted, economic integration, and external assistance.
Keywords:
WP; Iraq; Kuwait; financial system; Lebanon; Conflict; post-conflict economic recovery; Middle East; debt settlement program; excess demand; inflation in Kuwait; free market; invasion of Iraq; Lebanon's banking system; country-case study methodology; Inflation; Current account deficits; Financial sector; International reserves; Exchange rates; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Arab Countries in Transition - Economic Outlook and Key Challenges
International Monetary Fund
In spite of deepening and spreading conflicts in the region, as well as, in many cases, a challenging internal socio-political environment, the Arab Countries in Transition (Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen) have broadly maintained macroeconomic stability. At the same time, however, their economies are not delivering the growth rates needed for a meaningful reduction in unemployment, in particular for the youth and women. Notwithstanding diversity of conditions, countries should quickly advance structural reforms to foster higher and more inclusive growth, and continue to strengthen fiscal and external buffers to maintain stability amid heightened uncertainty. Coordinated support from the international community will be crucial in the form of financing, improved trade access, and capacity building assistance.
Keywords:
PP; current account; monetary policy; excl. grant; exchange rate; economic activity; labor market; private sector; government balance; Current account deficits; Government debt management; Budget planning and preparation; Middle East; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Jordan: Staff Report for the 2014 Article IV Consultation, Third and Fourth Reviews Under the Stand-By Arrangement, Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion and Applicability of Performance Criteria
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This paper focuses on Jordan’s 2014 Article IV Consultation, Third and Fourth Reviews Under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion (PC) and Applicability of PCs. The program is broadly on track and, looking forward, will focus on deep tax reform. All end-2013 targets were met. The central government is expected to meet its end-March 2014 target, but the combined public sector deficit will be missed because of temporary shortfalls in gas delivery from Egypt. International reserves have continued to over-perform through March. The IMF staff supports the completion of the third and fourth reviews.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Executive Board's discussion; investment law; Jordanian dinar; exchange rate; credit growth; Jordan's quota; headline inflation; SBA in the amount of SDR; Government debt management; Current account; Global; Middle East