Western Hemisphere > Suriname

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International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This technical assistance report on Suriname highlights medium-term macro-fiscal forecasting (MTFF). The Economic Affairs Department (EAD) recognizes the desirability of creating a new medium-term macro-fiscal forecasting framework. Existing technical capacity relating to forecasting among most EAD staff is at a basic level. Training, through hands-on exercises using Surinamese data, will play an important role in supporting the development and ultimate adoption of the MTFF. There are several risks to the project’s success, including regarding data quality and availability, as well as competing demands on EAD staff time. Limited data and weak relationships between predictors (economic activity) and fiscal variables would limit the forecast accuracy of the MTFF, though it would still allow for more rigorous and transparent projections than is current practice. Regarding staff time, it is understood that EAD staff have a strong interest in the development and usage of an MTFF, hopefully ensuring sufficient time by a core group of persons is devoted to receiving technical assistance support to develop the tool.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
This technical assistance (TA) mission on Government Finance Statistics was conducted during April 19– May 6, 2022. The main purpose of the mission was to review the progress made by the authorities in implementing previous TA recommendations and provide further support to improve fiscal data compilation and dissemination in line with international standards set out in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014.
Mr. Serhan Cevik
Global warming is the most significant threat to ecosystems and people’s health and living standards, especially in small island states in the Caribbean and elsewhere. This paper contributes to the debate by analyzing different options to scale up climate change mitigation and adaptation. In particular, the empirical analysis indicates that increasing energy efficiency and reducing the use of fossil fuel in electricity generation could lead to a significant reduction in carbon emissions, while investing in physical and financial resilience would yield long-run benefits. From a risk-reward perspective, the advantages of reducing the risks associated with climate change and the health benefits from higher environmental quality clearly outweigh the potential cost of climate change mitigation and adaptation in the short run. The additional revenue generated by environmental taxes could be used to compensate the most vulnerable households, building a multilayered safety net, and strengthening structural resilience.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
On December 22, 2021, the IMF Executive Board approved a 36-month arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with access of 366.8 percent of quota (SDR 472.8 million or USD 673 million). The Surinamese authorities’ homegrown economic recovery plan aims to address systemic fiscal and external imbalances and chart a course toward debt sustainability, declining inflation, and economic recovery while maintaining social stability. In the first few months of the program, the authorities have made good progress but important risks remain.
Charles Vellutini
and
Juan Carlos Benitez
This paper presents a novel technique to measure and compare the redistributive capacity of observed tax (or transfer) policies. The technique is based on income distribution simulations and controls for differences in pre-tax income distributions. It assumes that the only information on the pre-tax distribution available in each country-year is the Gini coefficient and the mean (GDP per capita). We illustrate the technique with an application to the personal income tax, using a dataset of 108 countries over the 2007-2018 period.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper on Suriname analyzes exchange rate pass through in Suriname. While the previous studies exclusively focused on the bilateral exchange rate against the US dollar, this study, in addition, estimates exchange rate passthrough using the nominal effective exchange rate. This is crucial given the strong presence of euros in the economy due to its historic connections with the Netherlands and French Guyana being one of its neighbors. The study is the first to investigate how various subcomponents of consumer price index respond to exchange rate variations differently for Suriname. The results suggest a cumulative exchange rate passthrough of around 0.4 (0.6) over six months and 0.6 (0.7) over one year for the entire sample of 1980-2019 (2000-19). A more systemic analysis suggests that the exchange rate passthrough has been declining and becoming more short-lived in recent years.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Suriname is recovering from the deep recession of 2015-16. Growth has turned positive, inflation has reduced to single digits, real interest rates have turned positive, and the external position has on balance strengthened. Nonetheless, the economy remains heavily dependent on the mineral sector, and faces fiscal, monetary, and banking sector vulnerabilities.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues explores ways for strengthening the current fiscal framework in Suriname and considers options for a new fiscal anchor. The paper provides an overview of mineral natural resources and their importance for the budget. It also lays out the current framework for fiscal planning and budget execution in Suriname and discusses the analytical underpinnings of modernizing it to make it more robust. The paper also presents estimates of long-term sustainability benchmarks based on the IMF’s policy toolkit for resource-rich developing countries. Suriname’s fiscal framework can be strengthened through a fiscal anchor rooted in the non-resource primary balance. Given the size of fiscal adjustment required to bring the non-resource primary balance in line with the long-term sustainability benchmark, a substantial transition period is needed to implement it. The IMF Staff’s adjustment scenario—designed to put public debt on the downward path—closes the current gap by less than half, implying that adjustment would need to continue beyond the 5-year horizon.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
This Technical Assistance Report on Suriname constitutes technical advice provided by the staff of the IMF to the authorities of Suriname in response to their request for technical assistance. The mission discussed issues concerning the consumer price index (CPI), the producer price index (PPI) and export price index (XPI). On the CPI, the mission reviewed current practices and provided some recommendations. The main recommendations are to switch from a Dutot to a Jevons index on the elementary aggregate level and to start publishing the CPI according to the Classification of Individual Consumption according to Purpose on a class level provided the number of items permits. On the planned PPI and XPI, the discussion focused on available data sources and next steps for developing a PPI for Suriname. Reliable price statistics are essential for informed economic policymaking by the authorities. They also provide the private sector, foreign investors, rating agencies, and the public in general with important inputs in their decision-making, while informing both domestic economic policy and IMF surveillance.