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Africa > Malawi

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Cover IMF Notes
Agricultural Producer Subsidies: Navigating Challenges and Policy Considerations
David Amaglobeli
,
Todd Benson
, and
Tewodaj Mogues
The objectives underlying agricultural output subsidies can have conflicting implications for the design of subsidy programs. As they tend to affect meaningful swaths of the electorate, subsidies can also be an attractive political instrument. By artificially lowering production costs or assuring higher output prices, direct support measures can result in resource misallocation in instances where they fail to address market failures, such as imperfect information about the returns to fertilizers. Subsidies can also contribute to fertilizer overuse, harming the environment and the agricultural sector in the long term. Furthermore, agricultural production subsidies are often fiscally costly and unfavorable compared to alternative uses of public funds—both within the agricultural sector and outside it—to achieve the same ends. Various design and implementation challenges amplify the shortcomings of producer subsidy programs.
Keywords:
Agricultural subsidies; direct farmer support; payments to agricultural producers; producer subsidy; input subsidy program; IMF note 2024/002; output price subsidy; implementation challenge; Agricultural policy; Government subsidies; Agroindustries; Agricultural sector; Price incentives; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF How To Notes
How to Assess the Benefits of Nonperforming Loan Disposal in Sub-Saharan Africa Using a Simple Analytical Framework
Irina Bunda
,
Luc Eyraud
, and
Zhangrui Wang
The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, which has hit financial systems across Africa, is likely to deteriorate banks’ balance sheets. The largest threat to banks pertains to their loan portfolios, since many borrowers have faced a sharp collapse in their income, and therefore have difficulty repaying their obligations as they come due. This could lead to a sharp increase in nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the short to medium term.
Keywords:
Nonperforming loan disposal; Excel template; disposal strategy; raise capital requirement; loan portfolio; management cost; Nonperforming loans; Loans; Distressed assets; Financial statements; Collateral; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa
Cover Departmental Papers
Macro-Financial Linkages in Shallow Markets: Experience from the African Department’s Pilot Countries
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This paper assesses and disseminates experiences and lessons from low-income countries (LICs) in Sub-Saharan Africa that were selected by the Africa Department in 2015-16 as pilots for enhanced analysis of macro-financial linkages in Article IV staff reports. The paper focuses on the common characteristics across the pilot countries and highlights the tools used in the analysis, the challenges encountered, and the solutions deployed in overcoming them.
Keywords:
DPPP; DP; interest rate; credit risk; central bank; banking sector; bank competition; cost of funds; composite index; lending condition; Malawian bank; economic value; bank information cost; financial system assets; banking system assets; bank level; banks in Benin; bank agent; Financial sector development; Financial sector; Stress testing; Credit; Sub-Saharan Africa; East Africa; Middle East; East Asia
Cover Staff Discussion Notes
Macro-Structural Policies and Income Inequality in Low-Income Developing Countries
Ms. Stefania Fabrizio
,
Davide Furceri
,
Mr. Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu
,
Ms. Grace B Li
,
Mrs. Sandra V Lizarazo Ruiz
,
Ms. Marina Mendes Tavares
,
Mr. Futoshi Narita
, and
Adrian Peralta
Despite sustained economic growth and rapid poverty reductions, income inequality remains stubbornly high in many low-income developing countries. This pattern is a concern as high levels of inequality can impair the sustainability of growth and macroeconomic stability, thereby also limiting countries’ ability to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. This underscores the importance of understanding how policies aimed at boosting economic growth affect income inequality. Using empirical and modeling techniques, the note confirms that macro-structural policies aimed at raising growth payoffs in low-income developing countries can have important distributional consequences, with the impact dependent on both the design of reforms and on country-specific economic characteristics. While there is no one-size-fits-all recipe, the note explores how governments can address adverse distributional consequences of reforms by designing reform packages to make pro-growth policies also more inclusive.
Keywords:
SDN; productivity; rate; revenue; Income inequality; growth; macro-structural policies; resource mobilization; infrastructure investment; financial sector reform; financial inclusion; agriculture; cash transfer program; higher-productivity sector; inequality in low-income developing countries; productivity gap; cost of capital; income fluctuation; Value-added tax; Income; Agricultural sector; Income distribution; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Aid and Growth at the Regional Level
Axel Dreher
and
Steffen Lohmann
This paper brings the aid effectiveness debate to the sub-national level. We hypothesize the nonrobust results regarding the effects of aid on development in the previous literature to arise due to the effects of aid being insufficiently large to measurably affect aggregate outcomes. Using geocoded data for World Bank aid to a maximum of 2,221 first-level administrative regions (ADM1) and 54,167 second-level administrative regions (ADM2) in 130 countries over the 2000-2011 period, we test whether aid affects development, measured as nighttime light growth. Our preferred identification strategy exploits variation arising from interacting a variable that indicates whether or not a country has passed the threshold for receiving IDA's concessional aid with a recipient region's probability to receive aid, in a sample of 478 ADM1 regions and almost 8,400 ADM2 regions from 21 countries. Controlling for the levels of the interacted variables, the interaction provides a powerful and excludable instrument. Overall, we find significant correlations between aid and growth in ADM2 regions, but no causal effects.
Keywords:
WP; effect of aid; IDA-threshold effect; level of significance; term growth-effect; Aid Effectiveness; Geo-coding; World Bank; rainfall growth; aid-growth regression; growth OLS; IDA threshold; Agroindustries; Personal income; Population growth; Africa; Central Asia; South Asia; Global
Cover Departmental Papers
Mozambique Rising: Building a New Tomorrow
Ms. Doris C Ross
,
Victor Duarte Lledo
,
Mr. Alex Segura-Ubiergo
,
Mr. Yuan Xiao
,
Ms. Iyabo Masha
,
Mr. Alun H. Thomas
, and
Mr. Keiichiro Inui
This publication highlights Mozambique’s remarkably strong growth over the two decades since the end of the civil war in 1992, as well as the major challenges that remain for the country to rise out of poverty and further its economic development. Chapters explore such topics as the role of megaprojects and their relationship to jobs and growth; infrastructure and public investment; Mozambique's quest for inclusive growth; developing the agricultural sector; and building a social protection floor.
Keywords:
DPPP; DP; natural resource; foreign direct investment; private sector; exchange rate; economic growth; resource revenue; civil war; management system; primary sector; per capita income; distribution network; investment project; stabilization fund; Public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); Public investment spending; Natural resources; Infrastructure; Agricultural sector; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa; Global; Southern Africa
Cover The IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa
The IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa
International Monetary Fund. Independent Evaluation Office

Abstract

This independent evaluation of the IMF’s role and performance in the determination and use of aid to low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa is presented at a ground-level view. Country performance has improved in many sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period, and the report details the role of the IMF’s programs, as well as perceptions of that role. The report is an important contribution to following through on the IMF’s commitment to its Poverty Reduction Strategy and makes three main recommendations for improving the coherence—actual and perceived—of the IMF’s policies and actions relating to aid to sub-Saharan Africa going forward.

Keywords:
IEOR; IEO; PRGF; Fund; policy; fund staff; IEO report; core mandate; policy advice; PRGF program design; Poverty reduction strategy; Poverty reduction; Civil society; Government debt management; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa; Global; IMF communications; IMF activity; IMF's instrument; Absorptive capacity; Poverty reduction and development
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Malawi: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper: Annual Progress Report
International Monetary Fund
This paper reviews the Annual Progress Report on Malawi’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (MPRS). The poverty situation remained high over the implementation period of the MPRS. The government continued funding activities that have been perceived to have an impact on poverty reduction. The MPRS outlined a number of macroeconomic policies that have been adhered to achieve the macroeconomic targets. These policies have been mainly in the form of monetary, fiscal, and structural policies.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; civil society; financial year; primary education; economic planning; inflation rate; secondary education; resource allocation; basic education; financial support; Agroindustries; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Malawi: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Annual Progress Report
International Monetary Fund
This paper analyzes key findings of the second progress report on Malawi’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The second progress report has focused on assessing inputs, outputs, and to some extent outcomes of the implementation of the strategy. In terms of inputs, this report analyzes expenditure by pillars, protected pro-poor activities, and functional analysis of government expenditure pattern. The outputs and outcomes analysis are presented in the report by comparing the planned activities and their targets outlined in the strategy to the actual progress and targets achieved over the second year of the implementation period.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; civil society; financial year; economic growth; local government; private sector; gross domestic product; basic education; open learning; public works; State party report; HIV and AIDS; Agroindustries; Africa; Southern Africa; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Malawi: Ex Post Assessment of Longer-Term Program Engagement
International Monetary Fund
This report presents an ex post assessment of Malawi’s longer-term program engagement with the IMF. Given the length of the engagement, and the important political change that took place in the mid-1990s, much of this report focuses on performance during the programs supported by the 1995 Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility and 2000 Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility arrangements. It provides an overview of economic developments, and reviews achievements and shortcomings in some key macroeconomic and structural areas. The role of the IMF in this process is also analyzed.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; debt ratio; real GDP; balance of payments; exchange rate; private sector; public enterprise; government intervention; fiscal policy; maize operation; Government debt management; Public enterprises; Budget planning and preparation; Southern Africa