Press Release No. 09/09

Press Release: IMF Launches Public Database to Facilitate Monitoring of Country Program Details

January 16, 2009

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today launched a public database to facilitate monitoring of the economic objectives and outcomes of Fund-support economic programs with member countries. The database, dubbed Monitoring of Fund Arrangements (MONA), has been endorsed by the IMF's Executive Board and follows up on recommendations contained in the Independent Evaluation Office report "Evaluation of Structural Conditionality in IMF-Supported Programs (http://www.ieo-imf.org/eval/complete/eval_01032008.html).

The MONA database is designed as a comprehensive and readily accessible source of information on Fund-supported programs starting from their approval by the Executive Board to their termination. New information is added to the data base a few weeks following Executive Board approvals of arrangements, or the completion of Board reviews of existing programs.

MONA data covers the following seven topics:

Description: An overview of the type of loan arrangement, the duration of the arrangement, total access to Fund financing, whether the arrangement is being treated as precautionary, and provides comments related to augmentations, extensions, and other details of established programs;

Program Goals and Reform Strategies: A description of the links between program goals and strategies;

Purchases: Covers the proposed schedule for disbursements, and the revised, and actual disbursements under the arrangement;

Reviews: Covers the original schedule for Executive Board review, the revised schedule, and the actual program review dates;

Quantitative Performance Criteria: Covers the original schedule to criteria to be applied under the program, revisions, adjustments and actual values of quantitative performance criteria and the relevant test dates under the program;

Combined SPC PA SB: Covers structural conditions related to performance criteria (spc), prior actions (pa) required under the program, and program benchmarks (sb), including relevant test dates, and outcomes;

Macroeconomic: An overview of macroeconomic variables covering an eight-year span from the initial program year.

MONA data is downloadable in Tab Delimited Values format, which is compatible with Excel, and most statistical packages. MONA is available at: http://www.imf.org/external/np/pdr/mona/index.aspx.