Staff Monitored Program

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An IMF Staff Monitored Program (SMP) is an informal agreement between an IMF member country and IMF staff to monitor the member country’s economic program.
Because the agreements are informal, they typically do not entail endorsement by the IMF Executive Board.
SMPs are used when an IMF member country is not yet able to implement an IMF-supported program because of factors such as limited institutional capacity, domestic instability, or lack of assurances of financing.
A successful SMP can pave the way for:
- an IMF financial arrangement,
- the resumption of a financial arrangement that has gone off-track,
- repeat use of emergency assistance in some cases.

SMPs can be used to help heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) be considered for debt relief under the HIPC initiative; this process requires the IMF Executive Board to assess a country’s success with the SMP over a minimum of six months.
Although SMPs may provide signals to donors, creditors, and the public about the strength of a country’s economic policies, they are not intended solely for that purpose.

SMPs closely resemble IMF-supported programs and are based on a quantified macroeconomic framework with medium-term projections for the main economic and financial variables.
SMPs include quantitative and structural benchmarks on key policy targets.
Duration:
- SMPs last for a minimum of six months.
- SMPs are not expected to exceed 18 months.
- The duration depends on a country’s previous track record and the measures needed to establish an adequate record of policy implementation.

IMF staff monitors SMP progress on a quarterly or semi-annual basis.
IMF staff periodically reports on SMPs to the IMF Executive Board, typically in the context of Article IV consultations (the IMF’s regular surveillance of a country’s monetary and financial system and its economic and financial policies).

Since September 2022 the IMF’s Executive Board can assess the robustness of a country’s economic policies to meet its objectives and monitor implementation through Program Monitoring with Board involvement (PMB).
Purpose and potential beneficiaries of PMB:
- Designed to help countries considering an SMP establish a policy track record for an IMF-supported program.
- Can benefit countries that are the subject of an ongoing concerted international effort by creditors or donors to provide substantial new financing or debt relief or have significant outstanding IMF credit under emergency financing instruments.
Review timing:
- The PMB will be reviewed before the end of September 2023.