IMF Responds to Worldwide Demand for Capacity Development

IMF News, September 26, 2016

Source details

IMF spending on capacity development up for sixth straight year, to $256 million.
IMF technical assistance and training accounts for more than one quarter of the IMF’s activities.
Nearly half of all IMF technical assistance goes to low-income developing countries; most of the remaining amount to emerging market economies, with some advanced economies receiving technical assistance as well.
Of all regions, sub-Saharan Africa received the largest share of this assistance.
The IMF delivered 375 training events for nearly 15,000 officials worldwide.
Online training participation grew sharply by 218 percent last year.

The IMF operates a global network of regional technical assistance centers in the Pacific, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Central America to strengthen human and institutional capacity.
Regional centers help tailor assistance to regional needs, coordinate with other assistance providers, respond quickly to emerging needs, and foster regional integration.
In FY2016, the IMF signed an agreement with the Indian government for a new South Asian Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center, to be based in New Delhi.
The new center will serve Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
The new center was made possible by early financial commitments from India, the Republic of Korea, and Australia.

IMF centers focus on financial sector supervision, tax and customs administration, medium-term expenditure frameworks and public financial management, money markets and monetary policy frameworks, and macroeconomic statistics.
Chief among the topics in demand is fiscal issues.
Most in demand by the membership are fiscal issues such as tax reform, followed by the monetary and financial sector, statistics, and legal issues.
IMF capacity development activities are integrated with the ongoing policy dialogue between members and the Fund.

Myanmar: After 50 years of relative isolation, the country launched a tax reform strategy designed with IMF support, and its revenues from major taxes have increased on average more than 20 percent annually since 2012.
Mali: IMF technical assistance is helping to ensure a gradual transfer of 30 percent of government revenue to the country’s regions by 2018.
Ukraine: IMF assistance is helping to enhance bank supervision, the foreign exchange market, domestic debt issuance, monetary policy, and the structure of the central bank as the economy and financial sector emerge from their deepest crisis since independence.
Paraguay: IMF assistance centered on implementing risk-based banking supervision and implementing inflation targeting.
Central Asia (Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan): Improved external sector statistics with IMF support.
Myanmar and Ukraine received IMF technical assistance in anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.

The IMF Annual Report 2016—Finding Solutions Together covers the financial year that ran from May 1, 2015 through April 30, 2016.
The “Spotlights” section explores quota reform, addition of the Chinese currency to the SDR basket, and IMF’s contribution to Financing for Development.
“Learn” tabs explain topics such as how IMF quotas work and how the SDR basket will change on October 1.
The “Regional Highlights” section includes a special report on the economic impact of the surge in refugees on the Middle East and host countries in Europe.
In FY2016 the Fund conducted 117 reviews of the economic and financial policies of individual member countries and analyzed global and regional economic trends and spillovers.
The Fund approved $9.2 billion in new loans to 16 countries, including $1.2 billion in low- or zero-interest loans to 13 low-income developing countries.
The Annual Report is available in print in eight languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish), and on CD-ROM (in English only). The Annual Report web page is available in Chinese, French, and Spanish.

IMF News: "IMF Responds to Worldwide Demand for Capacity Development" (September 26, 2016).