Despite significant progress in recent decades, labor markets across the world remain divided along gender lines. Female labor force participation has remained lower than male participation, gender wage gaps are high, and women are overrepresented in the informal sector and among the poor. In many countries, legal restrictions persist which constrain women from developing their full economic potential. While equality between men and women is in itself an important development goal, women's economic participation is also a part of the growth and stability equation. In rapidly aging economies, higher female labor force participation can boost growth by mitigating the impact of a shrinking workforce. Better opportunities for women can also contribute to broader economic development in developing economies, for instance through higher levels of school enrollment for girls.
As governments intervene more, evidence shows that the benefits are modest and depend on thoughtful design
The region’s central banks have built significant credibility over two decades, anchoring price expectations and bolstering resilience against external shocks
Governments can protect vulnerable households, keep businesses open, and preserve price signals without straining public finances
Resilience, supervision, and international coordination are essential to safeguarding global financial markets as new AI tools enable attackers
Fiscal pressures in developing countries make stronger domestic revenue systems more important than ever
Shipping and flight disruptions highlight new fault lines in the global economy and their costs for growth and livelihoods
Formulating an education production function and using estimates of student and class discipline levels, this paper seeks to identify the relations between discipline, class size, teaching quality and scholastic outcomes. The data shows both individual and class-level discipline to be a powerful predictor of the PISA math score, while variance in discipline among classmates has a strongly negative effect. Furthermore, class discipline is correlated with larger classes. As a structural simulation demonstrates, the correlations observed in the data can be well explained by how schools allocate students and teachers to classes. This analysis allows for a break-down of the contribution of educational production factors and highlights the role of individual and class discipline to student achievements.
Peru is benefiting from its most favorable terms of trade since the 1950s, driven by high metal prices, which have buoyed domestic demand and strengthened the fiscal and external positions. Despite political uncertainty and recent energy price shocks, very strong macroeconomic policy frameworks have helped sustain market confidence, lower financial volatility, and preserve market access on favorable terms.
IMF borrowers have demonstrated a very strong track record of timely repayments to the IMF since the 1990s—indeed, no new episodes of protracted overdue financial obligations (OFOs) have occurred since 2001. This represents a marked improvement from the experience of the 1980s and early 1990s. Through quantitative modeling we find that countries’ international reserves coverage of debt service due to the IMF and other creditors, external debt levels, macroeconomic conditions, and broad institutional strength played key roles in distinguishing between past cases with timely repayments and those with protracted arrears. However, we also find that policy reforms and changes in other qualitative factors since the 1990s weakened the relationship between quantitative indicators of repayment capacity and the likelihood of protracted arrears episodes. While stronger macroeconomic and institutional fundamentals of borrowers have contributed to greater timeliness of repayments, a large portion of the improvement remains unexplained by country-specific factors. The timing of this improvement is consistent with implementation of a cooperative strategy on OFOs and other policies that have incentivized cooperation and mitigated “residual” risks on IMF lending relative to the underlying fundamentals of borrowers.
This paper presents a broad analysis of the International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) 2023, which collected detailed data from 166 tax administrations worldwide for fiscal year (FY) 2022. It is the first survey since FY 2017 to cover tax administration practices and structural foundations extensively, providing valuable insights into global tax administration performance, resources, and governance frameworks. The paper also provides contextual information about the survey, to aid interpretation and facilitate use of the comparative database.
This report presents the findings of the Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) and the Climate PIMA (C-PIMA) conducted for Portugal at the request of the Ministry of Finance. Despite a variable pattern of public investment in recent decades, Portugal has developed a reasonable level of public infrastructure, much of it delivered through PPPs. This assessment finds that Portugal’s infrastructure governance framework is generally strong but identifies scope for improvement across the lifecycle, especially in strategic planning, multiyear budgeting, project appraisal, maintenance and investment implementation. The complementary Climate PIMA shows progress in integrating climate considerations with scope to further embed climate-sensitive project appraisal and budgeting practices. To enhance investment efficiency and climate resilience, the report recommends strengthening medium-term strategic planning and budgeting, reinforcing Ministry of Finance oversight in early project stages, enhancing project preparation and appraisal practices, streamlining execution processes, continuing to embed climate considerations in investment management and building capacity across the public sector.
This document outlines the initiation and early stages of a Technical Assistance project designed to improve Angola's Ministry of Planning (MinPlan) macroeconomic framework, ensuring consistency across the four sectors of the economy. Following a request from Angolan authorities, IMF ICD staff engaged in comprehensive virtual discussions with the MinPlan and Ministry of Finance in February, March, and May 2025. A scoping mission was held in Luanda in May 2025 to diagnose existing capacity and resources at the National Directorate of Socioeconomics Studies (DNESE) for forecasting and policy analysis. The agreed-on action plan is centered around the customization of the Macroeconomic Foundations Tool (MFT), which will assist the directorate in more effectively achieving their responsibilities as coordinator of the Macroeconomic Programming exercise.
The first Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) of Greece since 2006 has found risks to financial stability were low prior to the start of the war in the Middle East and remain manageable. The Greek financial system has experienced significant consolidation since the Greek Sovereign Crisis and is dominated by four systemically important (SI) banks. These banks underwent major asset cleanups through the securitization and sales of non-performing loans (NPLs) since 2019. They now enjoy strong balance sheets, profitability, and liquidity on the back of low-cost deposit bases and loans to domestic non-financial corporates (NFCs). However, mortgage and SME lending markets remain limited, partly due to the slow pace of resolution of the large stock of NPLs now managed by credit servicers (approximately 2.9 million loans from 2.4 million borrowers out of a population of 10.4 million people). Other non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) play only a limited role in the Greek financial system.
This technical assistance project, delivered by CCAMTAC and the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development, supported Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Economy in strengthening macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. The initiative developed and operationalized the Comprehensive Adaptive Expectations Model (CAEM), which was integrated into the Ministry’s forecasting system and has been in use since the Budget 2026. Through targeted training, enhanced analytical frameworks, and improved data infrastructure, the project advanced institutional capacity for credible policy analysis and scenario planning. The CAEM now supports robust, internally consistent medium-term forecasts, supporting Azerbaijan’s economic framework and policy formulation.
As governments intervene more, evidence shows that the benefits are modest and depend on thoughtful design
The region’s central banks have built significant credibility over two decades, anchoring price expectations and bolstering resilience against external shocks
Governments can protect vulnerable households, keep businesses open, and preserve price signals without straining public finances
Resilience, supervision, and international coordination are essential to safeguarding global financial markets as new AI tools enable attackers
Fiscal pressures in developing countries make stronger domestic revenue systems more important than ever
Shipping and flight disruptions highlight new fault lines in the global economy and their costs for growth and livelihoods
Formulating an education production function and using estimates of student and class discipline levels, this paper seeks to identify the relations between discipline, class size, teaching quality and scholastic outcomes. The data shows both individual and class-level discipline to be a powerful predictor of the PISA math score, while variance in discipline among classmates has a strongly negative effect. Furthermore, class discipline is correlated with larger classes. As a structural simulation demonstrates, the correlations observed in the data can be well explained by how schools allocate students and teachers to classes. This analysis allows for a break-down of the contribution of educational production factors and highlights the role of individual and class discipline to student achievements.
Peru is benefiting from its most favorable terms of trade since the 1950s, driven by high metal prices, which have buoyed domestic demand and strengthened the fiscal and external positions. Despite political uncertainty and recent energy price shocks, very strong macroeconomic policy frameworks have helped sustain market confidence, lower financial volatility, and preserve market access on favorable terms.
IMF borrowers have demonstrated a very strong track record of timely repayments to the IMF since the 1990s—indeed, no new episodes of protracted overdue financial obligations (OFOs) have occurred since 2001. This represents a marked improvement from the experience of the 1980s and early 1990s. Through quantitative modeling we find that countries’ international reserves coverage of debt service due to the IMF and other creditors, external debt levels, macroeconomic conditions, and broad institutional strength played key roles in distinguishing between past cases with timely repayments and those with protracted arrears. However, we also find that policy reforms and changes in other qualitative factors since the 1990s weakened the relationship between quantitative indicators of repayment capacity and the likelihood of protracted arrears episodes. While stronger macroeconomic and institutional fundamentals of borrowers have contributed to greater timeliness of repayments, a large portion of the improvement remains unexplained by country-specific factors. The timing of this improvement is consistent with implementation of a cooperative strategy on OFOs and other policies that have incentivized cooperation and mitigated “residual” risks on IMF lending relative to the underlying fundamentals of borrowers.
This paper presents a broad analysis of the International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) 2023, which collected detailed data from 166 tax administrations worldwide for fiscal year (FY) 2022. It is the first survey since FY 2017 to cover tax administration practices and structural foundations extensively, providing valuable insights into global tax administration performance, resources, and governance frameworks. The paper also provides contextual information about the survey, to aid interpretation and facilitate use of the comparative database.
This report presents the findings of the Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) and the Climate PIMA (C-PIMA) conducted for Portugal at the request of the Ministry of Finance. Despite a variable pattern of public investment in recent decades, Portugal has developed a reasonable level of public infrastructure, much of it delivered through PPPs. This assessment finds that Portugal’s infrastructure governance framework is generally strong but identifies scope for improvement across the lifecycle, especially in strategic planning, multiyear budgeting, project appraisal, maintenance and investment implementation. The complementary Climate PIMA shows progress in integrating climate considerations with scope to further embed climate-sensitive project appraisal and budgeting practices. To enhance investment efficiency and climate resilience, the report recommends strengthening medium-term strategic planning and budgeting, reinforcing Ministry of Finance oversight in early project stages, enhancing project preparation and appraisal practices, streamlining execution processes, continuing to embed climate considerations in investment management and building capacity across the public sector.
This document outlines the initiation and early stages of a Technical Assistance project designed to improve Angola's Ministry of Planning (MinPlan) macroeconomic framework, ensuring consistency across the four sectors of the economy. Following a request from Angolan authorities, IMF ICD staff engaged in comprehensive virtual discussions with the MinPlan and Ministry of Finance in February, March, and May 2025. A scoping mission was held in Luanda in May 2025 to diagnose existing capacity and resources at the National Directorate of Socioeconomics Studies (DNESE) for forecasting and policy analysis. The agreed-on action plan is centered around the customization of the Macroeconomic Foundations Tool (MFT), which will assist the directorate in more effectively achieving their responsibilities as coordinator of the Macroeconomic Programming exercise.
The first Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) of Greece since 2006 has found risks to financial stability were low prior to the start of the war in the Middle East and remain manageable. The Greek financial system has experienced significant consolidation since the Greek Sovereign Crisis and is dominated by four systemically important (SI) banks. These banks underwent major asset cleanups through the securitization and sales of non-performing loans (NPLs) since 2019. They now enjoy strong balance sheets, profitability, and liquidity on the back of low-cost deposit bases and loans to domestic non-financial corporates (NFCs). However, mortgage and SME lending markets remain limited, partly due to the slow pace of resolution of the large stock of NPLs now managed by credit servicers (approximately 2.9 million loans from 2.4 million borrowers out of a population of 10.4 million people). Other non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) play only a limited role in the Greek financial system.
This technical assistance project, delivered by CCAMTAC and the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development, supported Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Economy in strengthening macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. The initiative developed and operationalized the Comprehensive Adaptive Expectations Model (CAEM), which was integrated into the Ministry’s forecasting system and has been in use since the Budget 2026. Through targeted training, enhanced analytical frameworks, and improved data infrastructure, the project advanced institutional capacity for credible policy analysis and scenario planning. The CAEM now supports robust, internally consistent medium-term forecasts, supporting Azerbaijan’s economic framework and policy formulation.
