Narrow Your Choices

Refine By Topic

Refine By Series

Refine By Language

Refine By Date

—

Refine By IMF Taxonomy

Refine By JEL Taxonomy

Refine by LOC Taxonomy

Refine By THEMA Taxonomy

  • Print
  • Save

Africa > Malawi

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 11 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Foreign Aid x
Clear All Modify Search
Cover Policy Papers
Review of Experience with The Food Shock Window Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility
International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
,
International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
, and
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
The Food Shock Window (FSW) under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) was approved in September 2022 for 12 months, as a complement to the tools used by the Fund to support the broader international effort to address the global food shock. The Fund has been working closely with partners to provide a coordinated international response to the global food shock, and has contributed through policy advice, technical assistance and lending. Where needed and possible, financial support to countries affected by the global food shock has been delivered by the IMF through multi-year Fund-supported programs The FSW complemented this support in situations where these programs were not feasible or not necessary. As the global food shock and associated balance of payment pressures are expected to continue throughout 2023, the IMF extended the FSW until end-March 2024 to allow the FSW to continue serving as a contingency tool. This extension will also provide sufficient time to observe if the FSW can lapse without limiting the capacity of the Fund to support its members. To ensure adequate borrowing space under the emergency financing limits for those countries that have received support through the FSW, the IMF also extended the additional 25 percent of quota added to the Cumulative Access Limit until end-2026 for countries that have accessed the Food Shock Window through the RFI and until the completion of the 2024/25 PRGT review for those that accessed the Food Shock Window through the RCF.
Keywords:
Cumulative Access Limits; Rapid Financing Instrument; Rapid Credit Facility; Food Insecurity; FSW request; FSW financing; UCT-quality program; FSW relative; FSW experience; FSW resource; Food security; Food prices; Emergency assistance; Balance of payments need; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Review of Enhanced Access Limits Under the Rapid Credit Facility and Rapid Financing Instrument
International Monetary Fund
The temporary increase in access limits under IMF emergency financing instruments will expire on October 5, 2020, unless extended. Access limits under emergency instruments (the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI)) were increased in April 2020 for a period of six months, from 50 to 100 percent of quota annually and from 100 to 150 percent of quota cumulatively. The increased limits are subject to review and can be extended before their expiration. It is proposed to extend the period of higher access limits for emergency financing for a period of six months, through April 6, 2021. Against a background of continued pandemic-related disruption, staff expects there could be significant demand for emergency lending in the October 2020–April 2021 period, including from countries with pending requests and from countries that received emergency support at levels less than the maximum amounts available. A six-month extension would give more time for countries to benefit from higher access limits under emergency financing.
Keywords:
PP; financing; emergency financing instrument; HA procedure; RCF financing request; coronavirus pandemic; misuse of emergency financing; Emergency assistance; Balance of payments need; Credit; Global; COVID-19
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 IMF Working Papers
Aid Scaling Up: Do Wage Bill Ceilings Stand in the Way?
Ms. Annalisa Fedelino
,
Mr. Gerd Schwartz
, and
Marijn Verhoeven
This paper assesses whether the scaling up of aid and the resulting increase in government spending that is needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would be hampered by wage bill ceilings that are often part of government programs supported by the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Based on country case studies for 2003-05, the paper suggests that, in the past, wage bill ceilings have not restricted the use of available donor funds. Yet the paper offers a number of suggestions for further enhancing the flexibility of wage bill conditionality in PRGF-supported programs to respond to higher aid flows that may result in the future.
Keywords:
WP; wage bill; bill ceiling; bill conditionality; bill adjuster; bill PC; IMF conditionality; aid scaling up; MDGs; Wages; Public sector wages; Wage adjustments; Civil service reform; Government wage bill; Sub-Saharan Africa; Central America
Cover IMF Working Papers
Pity the Finance Minister: Issues in Managing a Substantial Scaling-Up of Aid Flows
Mr. Peter S. Heller
Substantially scaling up of aid flows will require development partners to address many issues, including the impact of higher aid flows on: the competitiveness of aid recipients; the management of fiscal and monetary policy; the delivery of public services; behavioral incentives; and the rate of growth of the economy. Other issues will include the appropriate sequencing of aid-financed investments; balancing alternative expenditure priorities; the implications for fiscal and budget sustainability; and exit strategies from donor funding. Donors will need to ensure greater long-term predictability and reduced short-term volatility of aid. The international financial institutions can play a critical role in helping countries address these scaling-up issues.
Keywords:
WP; country authorities; expenditure program; recipient government; private sector; exchange rate; monetary policy; Foreign Aid; Fiscal Policy; Dutch Disease; Aid donors; recipient country; government program; financial support; Aid flows; Budget planning and preparation; Real exchange rates; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Malawi: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix
International Monetary Fund
This Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix paper analyzes the budget deviations in Malawi, their reasons, and the consequences for the fiscal policy process. It documents the observed deviations of outturn to plan in Malawi, analyzes the reasons for such deviations, outlines some of the consequences, and considers options and actions needed for improvements. The paper evaluates the volatility and predictability of foreign aid inflows and the need for the government to modify its policies, if necessary. The paper also discusses the sources of data used, and evaluates the volatility of total foreign aid and its components.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; center; debt; government; price; dynamics analysis; debt-servicing cost; money-price relationship; foreign aid inflow; sustainability analysis; ODA commitment; Budget planning and preparation; Domestic debt; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Fiscal Sustainability in African HIPC Countries: A Policy Dilemma?
Ms. Annalisa Fedelino
and
Alina Kudina
This paper looks at the link between fiscal policy and debt sustainability in a number of African countries participating in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The paper finds that, on the basis of current fiscal policies, debt levels will remain unsustainable even after these countries graduate from the HIPC Initiative. This finding has important policy implications. By the very requirements of the HIPC Initiative, these countries are expected to increase significantly their poverty-reducing expenditure-possibly resulting in weaker fiscal primary balances and worsening debt sustainability outlook. As offsetting fiscal tightening may not be viable, ensuring debt sustainability may thus require increased availability of (nondebt-creating) grants. Otherwise, debt sustainability in HIPC countries may prove elusive in the long term.
Keywords:
WP; exchange rate; Debt sustainability; HIPC Initiative; concessional financing; GDP ratio; HIPC completion point; sustainability threshold; debt level; debt ratio; debt-sustainability target; debt problem; creating flow; Fiscal stance; Exchange rate adjustments; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Malawi: Use of Fund Resources—Request for Emergency Assistance
International Monetary Fund
This paper assesses Malawi’s Use of IMF Resources and Request for Emergency Assistance. The food shortage in early 2002 in Malawi has caused immense human suffering. IMF staff endorses the authorities’ decision to undertake large-scale food imports to complement the humanitarian aid efforts. Moreover, as effective targeting mechanisms are not available, the IMF staff supports the provision of a price subsidy as the most efficient way of reaching the poor who do not benefit from humanitarian aid.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; food; shortage; emergency; net; emergency loan; growth excl. foodstuff; international community; maize import; large-scale food import; large-scale import; Imports; Monetary base; Emergency assistance; Food imports; Southern Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
How Volatile and Unpredictable Are Aid Flows, and What Are the Policy Implications?
Mr. A. J Hamann
and
Mr. Ales Bulir
This paper examines empirical evidence on the volatility and uncertainty of aid flows, and the main policy implications. Aid is found to be more volatile than fiscal revenues- particularly in highly aid-dependent countries-and mildly procyclical in relation to activity in the recipient country. These findings imply that the current pattern of aid disbursements is welfare-reducing. We also find that uncertainty about aid disbursements is large and that the information content of commitments made by donors is either very small or statistically insignificant. Policies to cope with these features of aid, as well as broader international efforts to reduce the volatility and procyclicality of aid, are briefly discussed.
Keywords:
WP; disbursement; country; correlation coefficient; IMF-program projection; external aid; volatility; predictability; IMF-supported programs; program aid; IMF country desk economist; aid disbursement; recipient country; aid-to-revenue ratio; rank correlation correlation coefficient; donor country; reform effort; IMF program projection; Aid flows; Loans; Budget planning and preparation; Exchange rates; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Malawi: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix
International Monetary Fund
This report highlights the growth and macroeconomic policies in Malawi, and also analyzes the interaction between aid flows and macroeconomic stabilization policy. The paper reviews the country's recent trade reform program and summarizes other associated reforms and changes in the pattern of trade. It provides a survey of selected studies on the direct impact of HIV/AIDS on mortality and morbidity, measures of their possible effects on output, growth, and the fiscal position, and also a statistical appendix is provided for the country.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; reform program; foreign exchange; per capita income; trade agreement; trade regime; trade reform program; growth performance; trade liberalization program; aid dependency-a; tariff structure; economic growth; Malawi tea estate; Tariffs; Exports; HIV and AIDS; Aid flows; Imports; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Southern Africa; East Africa