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Political Science > Agriculture & Food Policy

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Central African Economic and Monetary Community: Staff Report on the Common Policies of Member Countries, and Common Policies in Support of Member Countries Reform Programs-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This paper presents Central African Economic and Monetary Community’s (CEMAC) IMF Staff report on Common Policies of Member Countries and Common Policies in Support of Member Countries Reform Programs. The positive terms-of-trade shock amidst the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine has broadly benefited CEMAC, reinforcing its external position and gradual post-pandemic recovery. Regional authorities tightened monetary policy and normalized prudential regulation in 2022, while continuing to advance the reform agenda. Global inflation pressures have passed through to domestic prices, putting pressure on real incomes. Rebuilding buffers and sustaining a recovery that protects the most vulnerable will require stricter adherence to budget and reform plans consistent with IMF-supported programs and policy advice; this will ensure that part of the oil windfall is saved. Implementation of these policies in current favorable conditions is critical to strengthening resilience in the face of rising risks, including most notably to food security, debt vulnerabilities, and tightening of global financial conditions. A prudent management of the oil windfall and faster progress on deep structural and governance reforms are pivotal for laying the foundations for a more diversified, inclusive, and sustainable growth.
Keywords:
CEMAC authorities; IMF article; CEMAC country; consultation discussion; CEMAC member country; Oil prices; Inflation; Fiscal stance; Liquidity; Global
Cover Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa
Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa
Living on the Edge
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa’s recovery has been abruptly interrupted. Last year, activity finally bounced back, lifting GDP growth in 2021 to 4.7 percent. But growth in 2022 is expected to slow sharply by more than 1 percentage point to 3.6 percent, as a worldwide slowdown, tighter global financial conditions, and a dramatic pickup in global inflation spill into a region already wearied by an ongoing series of shocks. Rising food and energy prices are impacting the region’s most vulnerable, and public debt and inflation are at levels not seen in decades. Against this backdrop, and with limited options, many countries find themselves pushed closer to the edge. The near-term outlook is extremely uncertain as the region’s prospects are tied to developments in the global economy and with a number of countries facing difficult sociopolitical and security situations at home. Within this challenging environment, policymakers must confront immediate socioeconomic crises as they arise, while also endeavoring to reduce vulnerabilities to future shocks, building resilience. Ultimately, however, the region’s safety and prosperity will require high-quality growth and the implementation of policies that will set the stage for a sustainable recovery, helping countries move away from the edge.

Keywords:
IMF country team; inflation expectation; rising prices; consumption basket; IMF staff calculation; regions economy; emergency food security; debt ratio; Inflation; Food security; Climate change; Food prices; Commodity prices; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global
Cover Policy Papers
The Managing Director's Global Policy Agenda, Annual Meetings 2022: Act Now, Act Together for a More Resilient World
International Monetary Fund
Reeling from multiple shocks, the global economic outlook looks increasingly difficult. Since last October, we have downgraded global growth and revised up inflation projections four times. Two years of pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine, have taken a heavy toll on activity and global trade, exhausting both policy buffers and people’s patience. Now, a ‘cost-of-living crisis’ threatens livelihoods everywhere, with the most vulnerable hit the hardest, and acute food insecurity is an unbearable hardship in too many parts of the world. Multi-decade inflation highs, tightening financing conditions, rising food and energy insecurity, capital flow disruptions, and record high debt levels point to a particularly difficult and uncertain period ahead—especially in the context of slowing growth in the US, Europe, and China. The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters—devastating floods, droughts, and wildfires—adds to these challenges. While the ongoing digital revolution brings new opportunities, the recent turmoil in crypto asset markets is a reminder of the risks of unfettered digitalization.
Keywords:
financing practice; growth-inflation trade-off; emergency financing instrument; financing condition; debt transparency; Inflation; Food security; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Proposal for a Food Shock Window Under the Rapid Financing Instrument and Rapid Credit Facility
International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
,
International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
, and
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
Russia’s war in Ukraine has exacerbated global economic pressures, including through a food shock. The war and food-related spillovers—higher import prices for food and fertilizer and disruptions in supply lines for food importers, and a loss of revenue for some food exporters—add to urgent balance-of-payments (BOP) needs of many Fund members. They have also exacerbated acute food insecurity, now affecting 345 million people. While the best response to address BOP pressures would generally involve an Upper Credit Tranche-quality program, such a program may not be feasible in some cases or necessary in others. This paper proposes a time-bound food shock window under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) and the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) to provide support to members in such situations. The new window would be temporary and provide low-access emergency financing that increases the amounts currently available under the RFI/RCF. Members would need to demonstrate urgent BOP needs and meet a set of qualification criteria related to the global food shock. The window would be available for 12 months from the date of Board approval of the window. Countries requesting financing under the window would also need to meet the standard qualification criteria under the RFI/RCF.
Keywords:
emergency financing instrument; UCT-quality program; emergency financing Access; SMP policy; Food shock window; urgent balance of payments; Emergency assistance; Balance of payments need; Food security; Agricultural commodities; Credit; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Proposal for a Staff-Monitored Program with Executive Board Involvement
International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
,
International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
, and
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
This paper proposes an amendment to the policy on Staff-Monitored Programs (SMPs) that would allow for limited Executive Board involvement in opining on the robustness of a member’s policies to meet their stated objectives under an SMP and monitoring its implementation. To differentiate from regular SMPs, such SMPs would be called “Program Monitoring with Board Involvement” or “PMBs”. Their use would be only available to those (requesting) members who, in addition to seeking to build or rebuild a track record for Upper Credit Tranche (UCT) Use of Fund Resources (UFR), would benefit from targeted Executive Board involvement because of either (i) an ongoing concerted international effort by creditors or donors to provide substantial new financing or debt relief to the member or (ii) significant outstanding Fund credit under emergency financing instruments at the time new emergency financing is received. Members meeting criterion (i) or (ii) above would be strongly encouraged to request such a PMB. The PMB would support members in designing, implementing, and monitoring policies under often complex circumstances.
Keywords:
emergency financing instrument; UCT-quality program; SMP policy; PMB criterion; UCT-quality instrument; PMB policy; urgent balance of payments; Emergency assistance; Balance of payments need; Food security; Debt relief; Global
Cover Departmental Papers
Climate Change and Chronic Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Diogo Miguel Salgado Baptista
,
Mrs. Mai Farid
,
Dominique Fayad
,
Laurent Kemoe
,
Loic S Lanci
,
Ms. Pritha Mitra
,
Tara S Muehlschlegel
,
Cedric Okou
,
John A Spray
,
Kevin Tuitoek
, and
Ms. Filiz D Unsal
Climate change is intensifying food insecurity across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with lasting adverse macroeconomic effects, especially on economic growth and poverty. Successive shocks from the war in Ukraine and COVID-19 pandemic have increased food prices and depressed incomes, raising the number of people suffering from high malnutrition and unable to meet basic food consumption needs by at least 30 percent to 123 million in 2022 or 12 percent of SSA’s population. Addressing the lack of resilience to climate change—that critically underlies food insecurity in SSA—will require careful policy prioritization against a backdrop of financing and capacity constraints. This paper presents some key considerations and examples of tradeoffs and complementarities across policies to address food insecurity. Key findings include (1) Fiscal policies focused on social assistance and efficient public infrastructure investment can improve poorer households’ access to affordable food, facilitate expansion of climate-resilient and green agricultural production, and support quicker recovery from adverse climate events; (2) Improving access to finance is key to stepping up private investment in agricultural resilience and productivity as well as improving the earning capacity and food purchasing power of poorer rural and urban households; and (3) Greater regional trade integration, complemented with resilient transport infrastructure, enables sales of one country’s bumper harvests to its neighbors’ facing shortages. The international community can help with financial assistance—especially for the above-mentioned social assistance and key infrastructure areas—capacity development, and facilitating transfers of technology and know-how.
Keywords:
Food Insecurity; Spatial Macroeconomics; Economic Development; Agricultural Policy; policy consideration; infrastructure investment; policy mix; SSA development outcome; cash transfer; IMF Library; price effect; increase dummy; fuel price hike; Climate change; Food prices; Food security; Agricultural sector; Agricultural commodities; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; Africa; West Africa; East Africa
Cover Policy Papers
The Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda, Spring Meetings 2022: The Global Economy Under Stress: Repercussions, Response, and Resilience
International Monetary Fund
The global policy agenda that follows recalibrates priorities to meet the new reality we are facing. The IMF also continues to adjust to respond to the rapidly evolving needs of our membership. Our flexibility has been evident over the past two years of the COVID crisis: unprecedented emergency financing; a historic Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation; an innovative plan to end the pandemic. Now, as we face another crisis on top of a crisis, we will continue to step up and support our member countries in every way we can—with financial resources, policy advice, and capacity development—working in collaboration with our international partners.
Keywords:
global economy under stress; price pressure; scarring effect; global economy well; country delivery; COVID-19; Food security; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Income Versus Prices: How Does The Business Cycle Affect Food (In)-Security?
Mr. Christian Bogmans
,
Mr. Andrea Pescatori
, and
Ervin Prifti
We study how two aspects of food insecurity - caloric insufficiency and diet composition - are affected by aggregate economic fluctuations. The use of cross-country panel data allows us to adopt a global prospective on the identification of the macroeconomic determinants of food insecurity. Income shocks are the most relevant driver of food insecurity, displaying high elasticities at the early stages of economic development. The role of food price shocks is more limited. Social protection has a direct effect and mitigates the impact of income shocks. Effects are highly heterogeneous across a range of structural characteristics of the economy, highlighting the role of distributional aspects and of food import dependency.
Keywords:
Food insecurity; growth; food prices; social protection; diet and health; food inflation; income elasticity; FD estimate; elasticity of undernourishment; coefficient estimate; rising prices; least squares; coefficient estimates of the interaction terms; inflation elasticity; ln GDP pc; income share; descriptive statistics; Food security; Income; Inflation; Purchasing power; Global; South Asia
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Niger: Rapport des services du FMI pour les consultations de 2014 au titre de l’article IV et quatrième et cinquième revues combinées de l’accord au titre de la facilité élargie de crédit et demande de dérogation pour la non-observation de critères de réalisation et de modification de critères de réalisation
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
Ce rapport pour les consultations de 2014 au titre de l'article IV indique que dans l’ensemble, les résultats macroéconomiques du Niger ont été globalement satisfaisants. Après le ralentissement économique enregistré en 2013 en raison de la situation sécuritaire dans la région et des conditions climatiques défavorables, la croissance a rebondi en 2014. L’inflation a été maîtrisée en partie grâce aux efforts consentis par le gouvernement pour améliorer la sécurité alimentaire et le fonctionnement des marchés. Cependant, le programme a affiché des résultats mitigés, l’effet conjugué de dépenses sécuritaires et alimentaires imprévues et d’un déficit de financement extérieur ayant mis à mal la gestion budgétaire. À court terme, pour assurer la viabilité des finances publiques, il est essentiel de maîtriser le déficit budgétaire, grâce à des mesures destinées à améliorer la politique et l’administration fiscales, à réformer l’administration douanière et à réduire les exonérations.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; financing; debt; real GDP; deficit
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Niger: Staff Report for the 2014 Article IV Consultation and Fourth and Fifth Reviews Under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement and Request for Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria and Modification of Performance Criteria
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This 2014 Article IV Consultation highlights that Niger’s overall macroeconomic performance has been broadly satisfactory. After the economic slowdown in 2013 owing to the regional security situation and adverse climatic conditions, economic growth has rebounded in 2014. Inflation has been contained, in part owing to the government’s efforts to improve food security and the functioning of food markets. However, program performance has been mixed, as a combination of unexpected security and food expenditures and a shortfall in external financing have strained fiscal management. In the near term, containing the fiscal deficit through measures to improve tax policy and administration, reform customs administration, and reduce exemptions is essential to ensure sustainability.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; financing; debt; real GDP; deficit; public finance management; ECF review; envisaged revenue administration measure; food expenditure; expenditure pressure; Government debt management; Food security; West Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; IMF arrangement