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Social Science > Demography

You are looking at 1 - 3 of 3 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • St. Vincent and the Grenadines x
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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Eastern Caribbean Currency Union: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper on the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) focuses on efficient, sustainable, and fair pension schemes. Despite recent reform efforts, the financial sustainability of the ECCU’s defined benefit social security schemes remains under strain, largely reflecting the still relatively low contributions and generous payouts. This, coupled with a rapidly ageing population and high labor market informality, increases the need for a comprehensive review and adoption of further parametric and non-parametric reforms of the pension systems to avoid abrupt and more sizable adjustments in the future as well as to reduce the risks of old-age poverty. This annex reviews pension schemes in the ECCU, with a focus on assessing their design and performance and identifying policy options to improve their efficiency, fairness, and sustainability. Key recommendations include swift adoption of further comprehensive reforms to address design weaknesses, improving coverage, investment strategy, administrative efficiency, and transparency, and establishing automatic adjustment mechanisms.
Keywords:
NIS pension schemes Overview; labor market performance; public sector pension schemes; labor markets in the ECCU; ECCU migration; Pensions; Pension spending; Aging; Retirement; Labor markets; Caribbean; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
National Insurance Scheme Reforms in the Caribbean
Koffie Ben Nassar
,
Mr. Joel Chiedu Okwuokei
,
Mike Li
,
Timothy Robinson
, and
Mr. Saji Thomas
Weighed down by population aging, slow economic growth, and high unemployment, National Insurance Schemes in the Caribbean are projected to run substantial deficits and deplete their assets in the next decades, raising the prospects of government intervention. With the region highly indebted, this paper quantifies the impact of three parametric reforms—freezing pension benefits for two years, raising the retirement age and increasing the contribution rate by one percentage point—that, if implemented, would put the pension schemes on a stronger financial footing. While the appropriate combination of reforms necessary to eliminate the actuarial deficits varies depending on each country’s circumstances, most countries need to undertake reforms now or risk even higher taxes, lower growth and unsustainable debt dynamics.
Keywords:
WP; retirement age; pension scheme; Jamaica; economic growth; rate; Social Security; Old Age Pensions; Public Debt; Contingent Liabilities; contribution rate; NIS viability; Jamaica NIS; contribution income; Pensions; Pension spending; Aging; Retirement; Income; Caribbean; Asia and Pacific; Europe; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Macroeconomic Implications of Natural Disasters in the Caribbean
Mr. Tobias N. Rasmussen
Each year natural disasters affect about 200 million people and cause about $50 billion in damage. This paper compares the incidence of natural disasters across countries along several dimensions and finds that the relative costs tend to be far higher in developing countries than in advanced economies. The analysis shows that small island states are especially vulnerable, with the countries of the Eastern Caribbean standing out as among the most disaster-prone in the world. Natural disasters are found to have had a discernible macroeconomic impact, including large effects on fiscal and external balances, pointing to an important role for precautionary measures.
Keywords:
WP; ECCU country; country; GDP; government; market; price; Natural Disasters; Eastern Caribbean; Developing Countries; ECCU insurance market; countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union; island state; market insurance; Insurance; Personal income; Fiscal stance; Caribbean; Global