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Middle East and Central Asia > Mauritania, Islamic Republic of

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Cover High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Technical Assistance Project on Public Debt Projections: Scoping Mission Report
Marie Pierre Aquino Coste
,
Naomitsu Yashiro
, and
Oumar Dissou
This document outlines the initiation and early stages of a Technical Assistance project designed to enhance the capacity of Mauritania's National Committee on Public Debt (CNDP) in the areas of public debt projection and analysis. Following a request from Mauritanian authorities, IMF ICD staff engaged in comprehensive virtual discussions with the CNDP's Technical Committee in September 2023. A subsequent mission to Nouakchott in January 2024 evaluated the existing capacity and resources at the CNDP for public debt projection and debt sustainability analysis. The IMF team proposed adopting the IMF’s Public Debt Dynamics Tool (DDT), customized for Mauritania's specific economic conditions. This recommendation aims to assist the CNDP in generating reliable medium-term debt projections and analyzing risk scenarios. These scenarios include the impact of natural disasters and explore fiscal adjustment strategies via the non-extractive primary balance to achieve targeted debt levels.
Keywords:
Public debt; debt management; technical assistance; IMF; dynamics tool; IMF ICD staff; IMF team; debt projection; debt dynamics analysis; Debt sustainability analysis; Government debt management; Macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This paper presents Islamic Republic of Mauritania’s poverty reduction and growth strategy. With the second Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity (SCAPP) Action Plan 2021–2025, Mauritania is embarking on a new phase in the implementation of its three-five-year strategy to achieve the vision “The Mauritania we want in 2030.” Mauritania, through its commitment to the implementation of the SCAPP, marks its willingness to initiate a large-scale economic, social and environmental transition, on the path of inclusive growth, economic diversification, social cohesion, respect for fundamental rights and human dignity, peace and respect for the environment. The first Action Plan 2016–2020 demonstrated that the implementation of the SCAPP was able to record convincing results. However, some of the objectives could not be achieved, in particular because of the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, which severely affected the world economy, and therefore the Mauritanian economy, which resulted in the emergence of new priorities. This Action Plan 2021–2025 takes into account the lessons learned from the implementation of the first and implements the necessary measures to support the country in its economic recovery and respond to the decisive challenges of the next 5 years, which will be decisive in the preparation of the third Action Plan and the achievement of the 2030 Goals.
Keywords:
Ministry of petroleum; Ministry of hydraulics; ministry of Livestock; Ministry of employment; Ministry of communication; Ministry of equipment; Ministry of trade; Infrastructure; Global; West Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Informality, Labor Market Dynamics, and Business Cycles in North Africa
Olivier Bizimana
and
Shant Arzoumanian
Employment informality is widespread across North Africa. This paper aims to shed light on the role played by the informal sector in labor market adjustments over the business cycle. It finds that the response of labor markets to output fluctuations is more muted in countries with higher informality levels, like the North African economies. The analysis also confirms that informal employment is countercyclical and acts as a buffer during economic downturns in countries with relatively higher informality. However, contrary to what took place in past recessions, informal employment contracted sharply during the 2020 pandemic recession in high informality economies, suggesting that it did not play its traditional countercyclical role. By contrast, employment informality tends to fall modestly or increase during economic upturns, including the post-pandemic recovery. This finding presages the persistence of a large informal sector in the post-covid era in medium- and high-informality countries.
Keywords:
Informality; Labor Markets; Business cycles; Okun’s Law; employment informality; labor market dynamics; business cycles in North Africa; informality economy; law coefficients from panel regression; product market rigidity; Informal employment; Employment; Economic recession; Labor force participation; North Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Personal Income Taxes in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects and Possibilities
Mario Mansour
and
Eric M. Zolt
Personal income taxes (PITs) play little or no role in the Middle East and North Africa, often yielding less than 2 percent of GDP in revenue—with the exception of few North African countries. This paper examines how PITs have evolved in recent decades, and what they might look like in the next 20 years. Top marginal tax rates on labor and business income of individuals have declined substantially, a trend that mirrors reductions in advanced and developing economies. Taxation of passive capital income has changed very little, and the revenue intake from this source remains low throughout the region (less than 1 percent of GDP on average and concentrated in oil-importing non-fragile states). Social security contributions (SSC) have increased in importance in nearly all MENA countries, and some countries have introduced additional payroll taxes. The combination of reduced marginal tax rates, light taxation of income from capital and business activities, and increase of SSC, have resulted in income tax systems that create disincentives to work and incentives for informality, and contribute little to government revenue and income redistribution. Given differences in economic and political structures, demographics, and starting points, the path to PIT/SSC reforms will vary across the region. Countries with relatively mature PIT/SSC systems, where revenue performance has improved in the past two decades, will increasingly need to balance the revenue and equity objectives against effciency objectives (in particular labor market incentives and infromality). Countries with no PITs will have to weigh whether a consumption tax/SSC system that mimic a flat tax on labor income is sufficient to diversify revenue away from oil and whether to adopt PITs to address rising income and wealth inequality. Finally, fragile states, who face more political volatility and weaker fiscal institutions, will have to focus on simplicity of tax design and collection to be able to raise revenue from PITs.
Keywords:
Personal income taxes; social security contributions; payroll taxes; fragile and conflict states; Middle East and North Africa; Gulf-Cooperation Council; SSC reform; SSC system; revenue performance; PIT objective; PIT revenue; Personal income tax; Income tax systems; Income; Income and capital gains taxes; Corporate income tax; North Africa; Middle East; East Africa; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Designing Fiscal Redistribution: The Role of Universal and Targeted Transfers
Mr. David Coady
and
Nghia-Piotr Le
There is a growing debate on the relative merits of universal and targeted social assistance transfers in achieving income redistribution objectives. While the benefits of targeting are clear, i.e., a larger poverty impact for a given transfer budget or lower fiscal cost for a given poverty impact, in practice targeting also comes with various costs, including incentive, administrative, social and political costs. The appropriate balance between targeted and universal transfers will therefore depend on how countries decide to trade-off these costs and benefits as well as on the potential for redistribution through taxes. This paper discusses the trade-offs that arise in different country contexts and the potential for strengthening fiscal redistribution in advanced and developing countries, including through expanding transfer coverage and progressive tax financing.
Keywords:
WP; income; cost; earned income; taxation framework; consumption taxation; transfer program; income tax schedule; efficiency cost; poverty impact; redistribution objective; means testing; income share; public spending; income redistribution objective; progressive tax; poverty line; Personal income; Income tax systems; Fiscal redistribution; Income inequality; Middle East; North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; East Africa; transfers; taxes; targeted; universal; income transfer
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Technical Assistance Report-Report on the External Sector Statistics Technical Assistance Mission (March 19-30, 2018)
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
With the support of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD), and at the request of the Central Bank of Mauritania (BCM), the IMF’s Statistics Department (STA) mission visited Nouakchott from March 19–30, 2018, to provide technical assistance (TA) in the area of external sector statistics (ESS). This mission is part of an initiative financed by the Financial Sector Stability Fund (FSSF): Balance Sheet Approach (BSA) Sub-Module. This intersectoral effort will enable the production of more reliable BSA matrices to support macroprudential policies, the country’s financial stability analysis, and the IMF’s surveillance missions. The mission’s key objectives were to work closely with the BCM in order to (i) improve the compilation of the balance of payments (BOP), and (ii) propose a framework for compiling the international investment position (IIP). Based on the findings and recommendations of the last TA mission on external sector statistics (ESS) carried out at the BCM in October 2016, this mission notes the need to improve the quality of most items in the BOP, particularly the financial account, which could also aid IIP compilation efforts in the near future.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; balance of payments; BOP team; compilation framework; IIP component; BOP framework; BOP transaction; BOP system; Foreign direct investment; Operational risk; External sector statistics; Commercial banks; International investment position
Cover IMF Working Papers
Can They Do It All? Fiscal Space in Low-Income Countries
Ms. Anja Baum
,
Andrew Hodge
,
Ms. Aiko Mineshima
,
Ms. Marialuz Moreno Badia
, and
Rene Tapsoba
According to U.N. estimates, low-income countries will have to increase their annual public spending by up to 30 percent of GDP to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), raising the question of whether they can do it all. This paper develops a new metric of fiscal space in low-income countries that accounts for macroeconomic uncertainty, allowing us to assess whether those spending needs can be accommodated. Illustrative simulations based on this methodology imply that, even under benign conditions, the fiscal space available in lowincome countries is likely insufficient to undertake the spending needed to achieve the SDGs. Improving public investment efficiency and domestic revenue mobilization can somewhat narrow the gap but it will require major efforts relative to recent trends.
Keywords:
WP; debt limit; exchange rate; debt ratio; debt dynamics; fiscal space; public debt; sustainability; SDGs; low-income countries; financing mix; LIC financing landscape; financing constraint; interest rate; financing condition; Fiscal stance; Public investment spending; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Optimal Reserves in Financially Closed Economies
Mr. Olivier D Jeanne
and
Mr. Damiano Sandri
Financially closed economies insure themselves against current-account shocks using international reserves. We characterize the optimal management of reserves using an open-economy model of precautionary savings and emphasize several results. First, the welfare-based opportunity cost of reserves differs from the measures often used by practitioners. Second, under plausible calibrations the model is consistent with the rule of thumb that reserves should be close to three months of imports. Third, simple linear rules can capture most of the welfare gains from optimal reserve management. Fourth, policymakers should place more emphasis on how to use reserves in response to shocks than on the reserve target itself.
Keywords:
WP; interest rate; opportunity cost; open economy; Official reserves; current account; precautionary savings; carry cost; cost-benefit approach; real rate of interest; welfare cost; level of reserve; Reserve positions; Imports; Reserves management; Exports; Income; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA): Questions générales
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine : questions générales
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Waemu; investment efficiency; investment; WAEMU country
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU): Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This paper presents stylized facts on the quantitative and qualitative infrastructure gap in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), estimates the efficiency of public investment, and recommends how to improve it. The WAEMU countries face an important common challenge of creating sufficient fiscal space to finance ambitious growth, development, and poverty-reduction programs in individual countries. This paper also provides comparative evidence of the situation of WAEMU in several areas of financial development relative to groups of benchmark countries. The state of inclusion in the WAEMU along three dimensions—poverty, income inequality, and gender inequality—is also examined in this paper.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Waemu; investment efficiency; investment; WAEMU country; WAEMU member; extent income; WAEMU growth; Public investment spending; Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); Financial sector development; Gender inequality; Sub-Saharan Africa; West Africa; Global