Strengthening Economic Institutions for a Resilient Recovery

IMF Blog, June 10, 2020

Source details

Exceptional times call for exceptional action; the IMF has moved with unprecedented speed and magnitude of financial assistance to help countries protect lives and livelihoods.
Economic stabilization and a sustainable recovery require more than financial assistance: policymakers must strengthen economic institutions that enable resilient, inclusive policies.
Strengthening economic foundations can have the greatest long-term impact on the economic and social wellbeing of people.

Governments face massive spending pressures, lost government revenues and higher debt, making progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals more challenging, particularly for the most fragile and vulnerable countries.
The IMF has provided immediate and real-time policy advice and capacity development support to over 160 countries to address urgent issues such as cash management, financial supervision, cybersecurity, and economic governance.
Direct, ongoing conversations with policymakers to develop capacity go hand-in-hand with IMF financial support.
Over 90 percent of countries that requested pandemic-related emergency financing have also received capacity development support in the form of hands-on technical advice, practical tools and policy-oriented training.

Business continuity and protecting revenue streams are crucial for governments to rapidly mobilize and maintain domestic resources.
The IMF has been working with tax administrations and budget offices in many countries to help them restore operations and strengthen support to businesses and individuals, without compromising safeguards and accountability.
The IMF has provided immediate debt service relief to 27 of our poorest member countries.
Together with the World Bank, the IMF has led the call to major bilateral creditors to suspend debt service payments from the poorest countries.
Debt managers worldwide are grappling with strategic, recording, and management issues in the COVID-19 environment and are working with IMF technical experts to revise and update their debt management strategies and systems.
Data and statistics are emphasized as crucial for assessing the crisis and associated financing needs; short, “micro-learning” videos on the IMF Institute’s YouTube Channel have been developed to tackle issues related to public sector debt data.
As governments begin to shift towards reopening, stronger economic institutions will enable better assessment of pandemic challenges and resumption of policies addressing inequality, climate action, and leveraging digitalization.

The IMF is building virtual platforms to facilitate knowledge sharing, including a policy tracker covering the actions taken by 196 economies to combat the impact of COVID-19.
The IMF has produced 45 Special Series Notes that provide practical policy guidance to countries on the nuts and bolts of common crisis-related policy challenges.
The IMF has expanded free online courses to increase global access to IMF expertise on topics such as fiscal policymaking, financial inclusion, and macroeconomic management.
The IMF is leveraging its global network of regional capacity development centers to respond quickly to countries’ emerging needs and ensure closer coordination with development partners.

Rebuilding stronger, more resilient institutions should be treated as a top priority by policymakers and development partners as the world emerges from the Great Lockdown.
Strengthening economic foundations—though laborious and unglamorous—can have the greatest long-term impact on the economic and social wellbeing of people.

Antoinette M. Sayeh, June 10, 2020