Low-Income Countries
What has the IMF done to help low-income countries during the coronavirus pandemic?
The IMF has acted with unprecedented speed and scale to support low-income countries during the pandemic. The Fund provided financial support to 53 of 69 eligible low-income countries in 2020 and in the first half of 2021, with about US$14 billion disbursed as zero percent interest rate loans from the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.
Most of this support was through the Fund’s emergency financing instruments—the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI)—which provide immediate, one-time disbursements to countries facing urgent balance of payments needs. The Fund was able to respond to a record number of requests for financial assistance through a series of temporary access limit increases to the RCF and RFI, and temporary increases in the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) overall access limits.
IMF Executive Board Completes the First and Second Reviews of Sierra Leone’s Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the first and second reviews of Sierra Leone’s arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). The completion of the reviews enables the immediate disbursement of SDR 58.3 million (about US$79.8 million), bringing total disbursements under the ECF arrangement to SDR 93.3 million (about US$127.8 million).
IMF Staff Concludes Visit to Georgia
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Mr. Alejandro Hajdenberg held meetings in Tbilisi during December 10-16, 2025, to discuss recent economic and financial developments and progress on reform priorities. At the end of the visit, Mr. Hajdenberg issued the following statement:
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2025 Article IV Consultation with the Philippines
On November 24, 2025, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the 2025 Article IV consultation with the Philippines.
IMF Executive Board Completes the Fourth Review under the Extended Fund Facility and First Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility Arrangements for Jordan
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the fourth review of the arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the first review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement.
IMF Executive Board Completes the Fifth Reviews under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and Second Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) for Papua New Guinea
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the Fifth Reviews under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangements, and the Second Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement for Papua New Guinea. The completion of these reviews allows for the immediate disbursement of SDR 121.07 million (about US$165 million) under the ECF/EFF arrangements and SDR 39.48 million (about US$54 million) under the RSF arrangement, bringing total disbursements under the IMF-supported programs so far to SDR 622.48 million (about US$851 million).
The Gambia: IMF Executive Board Completes the Fourth Review Under the Extended Credit Facility and the First Review Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility Arrangements
The Executive Board completed today the fourth review of The Gambia’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, approved on January 12, 2024, supporting reforms to address long-standing structural impediments to inclusive growth. The completion of the review allows for the immediate disbursement of SDR12.44 million (about US$17.00 million), bringing total disbursements under this arrangement to SDR49.75 million (about US$68.00 million).
How Stablecoins Can Improve Payments and Global Finance
New technology can foster innovation and financial inclusion, or cause fragmentation and turbulence in many countries
Better Economic Measurement Is About Wiser Use, Not Just More Data
Statistics are a means, not an end, that should serve the public by helping us see the world more clearly and make better decisions
Industrial Policy Can Lift Productivity—but Comes With Risks and Trade-offs
Potential gains in targeted sectors and overall are not guaranteed and depend on careful policy design and implementation
How Europe Can Capture the AI Growth Dividend
Artificial intelligence could boost Europe’s productivity, but gains will hinge on efforts to deepen the single market and the calibration of regulation
Policy Actions Can Reinforce Growth Progress in Many G20 Economies
Concerted action on economic reforms can help the G20 achieve the group’s collective growth ambitions, but the reforms with the biggest payoff vary across countries
Sub-Saharan Africa: Steady Growth Amid Fiscal Challenges
Increasing government revenue and better managing debt can help foster resilience and accelerate growth
The Chair’s Summing Up Independent Evaluation Office—IMF Advice on Fiscal Policy Executive Board Meeting December 4, 2025
The Executive Board discussed the Independent Evaluation Office’s review of IMF fiscal policy advice from 2008 to 2023. Directors welcomed the evaluation and noted the Fund’s progress in adapting its guidance to changing global conditions. The discussion highlighted the evolution from a narrow focus on debt sustainability toward a more integrated approach that balances fiscal sustainability, output stabilization, and long-term growth. Directors acknowledged improvements in analytical tools, including debt sustainability frameworks and fiscal risk assessments, while emphasizing the need for clearer articulation of fiscal stance and better integration of long-term spending priorities. The Board reaffirmed its commitment to transparency and consistency in providing candid, country-specific advice to help members navigate fiscal challenges.
Statement by the Managing Director on the Independent Evaluation Office Report on IMF Advice on Fiscal Policy Executive Board Meeting December 4, 2025
The Managing Director welcomes the Independent Evaluation Office’s assessment of IMF fiscal policy advice over the past 15 years. The evaluation highlights the Fund’s evolution from a narrow focus on debt sustainability to a more balanced framework that integrates output stabilization, fiscal sustainability, and long-term growth objectives.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)— Enhancing Resilience to Global Shocks: Economic Prospects and Policy Challenges for the GCC Countries
Despite the challenging external environment, the GCC economies have been resilient. Non-hydrocarbon activity has remained robust amid strong domestic demand supported by the reform momentum, limited spillovers from regional, as well as the modest direct impact of higher U.S. tariffs given the exemption of energy products and limited trade ties with the U.S. While external balances narrowed amid oil production cuts and robust imports, the external positions remain overall strong. The economic outlook remains favorable but risks are tilted to the downside amidst elevated global uncertainty. Economic activity will be supported by the unwinding of oil production cuts, the expansion of natural gas production, and strong reform and project implementation facilitated by ample policy buffers. External buffers would remain comfortable despite narrower current account balances driven by higher imports. The near-term risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside, as oil prices could decline and financial conditions tighten amid high uncertainty. Over the medium term, ongoing global structural shifts pose two-sided risks for the GCC economies.
Fifteenth Periodic Monitoring Report on the Status of Managment Implementation Plans in Response to Board-Endorsed IEO Recommendations
The 15th Periodic Monitoring Report (PMR) on the Status of Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) in Response to Board-endorsed Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) Recommendations assesses the progress made over the past year on 48 actions contain in 11 MIPs. Over the past year, substantial progress has been made in implementing management actions with the closure of 24 actions, and these closed actions are a balance of strategic and operational actions.
Extension of the Period for Consent to Increase Quotas under the Sixteenth General Review of Quotas and to the NAB Rollback
On November 7, 2025, the IMF’s Executive Board approved another six-month extension of the period to consent to the quota increase and to the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) rollback under the Sixteenth General Review of Quotas (GRQ), through May 15, 2026. Such extension also extends the period of consent for quota increases under the 14th GRQ. The previous deadline was due to expire on November 15, 2025. However, the Board of Governors Resolution 79-1 provides that the Executive Board may extend the period for consent as it may determine.
Central Bank Digital Currency: Further Navigating Challenges and Risks
This paper informs the Executive Board about recent developments in central bank digital currency (CBDC), and summarizes the key messages and findings from the third wave of CBDC virtual Handbook chapters published in November 2025. Both retail (rCBDC) and wholesale (wCBDC) CBDC explorations are advancing, with wholesale projects gaining prominence. Countries are in various stages of CBDC development, ranging from near-term issuance to pausing rCBDC efforts due to limited domestic needs. This set of six Handbook chapters covers macro-financial topics including the implications of rCBDCs for (1) financial stability and (2) payments competition; legal and regulatory themes such as (3) selected legal considerations and (4) financial integrity. It draws lessons from (5) payment ecosystem resilience in fragile and conflict-affected states for CBDC, and also sheds light on the emerging area of (6) tokenized reserves. The Handbook, financially supported by the Government of Japan, provides technical frameworks and guidance for policymakers especially in emerging markets, to assess CBDC’s potential and tradeoffs. It is not intended to evaluate CBDC’s overall appropriateness, which is left to policymakers given domestic circumstances.
Can Healthy Aging Boost Labor Supply? Evidence from Korea
This paper examines the role of ‘healthy aging’ in boosting labor supply in Korea. First, we use microdata from surveys to assess whether there is evidence that the physical abilities of individuals aged 50 years and above have been improving over successive cohorts. Second, we investigate whether health improvements among older workers influence their labor market outcomes, such as the decision to supply labor or to retire. We use an instrumental variable approach to enable causal inference, proxying exogenous variations in health with the incidence of certain chronic diseases. Our findings reveal that (i) physical health indicators have improved on average across birth cohorts, providing evidence in favor of ‘healthy aging’ in Korea, and (ii) better health increases the probability of participating in the labor force and postponing retirement. Overall, our results suggest that healthy aging has increased the labor supply of older individuals in Korea by around 1.9 percentage points per year during the 2006-20 period. The results for Korea are qualitatively comparable but quantitatively somewhat stronger than those for comparator Asian countries.
Changes in Bank Lending Standards and the Macroeconomy: Evidence from Mongolia
This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of credit supply shocks in Mongolia. Using bank credit surveys and a newly constructed indicator of changes in lending standards, adjusted for macroeconomic and bank-specific factors influencing credit demand, we identify the impact of credit supply disruptions on key macroeconomic variables. Our findings reveal that one standard deviation shock to credit supply leads to an initial reduction in total lending growth, output growth, and inflation. Decomposing the shocks into credit supply components we find that shocks to enterprise and household lending also have similar effects on respective lending growth rates. However, household credit supply shocks have a stronger impact on output growth, while enterprise credit supply shocks have a stronger impact on inflation. Variance decomposition analysis suggests that adjusted credit supply shocks purged from demand fluctuations hold significant power in explaining the variability of macroeconomic variables. Overall, our results confirm the importance of credit supply shocks for macroeconomic variables in Mongolia.
Reforms to Reduce China’s High Household Savings
Household savings in China are markedly higher than in peer economies, which have been channeled into financing excessive investment. This paper examines the structural and cyclical factors contributing to China’s elevated household savings. The analysis suggests that low government social spending in rural areas and residency (“Hukou”) restrictions in urban areas play a significant role in increasing household savings. In addition, the paper provides evidence that fluctuations in real estate prices significantly impact household savings, both through the wealth effect and the downpayment effect (i.e., need for non-homeowners to save so as to afford downpayments), though the latter channel has weakened after the recent real estate market correction. These findings suggest that further strengthening social safety nets, continuing Hukou reforms, and policies that promote a more efficient transition for the housing market can help reduce household savings and boost private consumption, thus facilitating China’s economic rebalancing.
Optimal FX Interventions with Limited Reserves
We investigate the optimal time-consistent use of foreign exchange interventions (FXI) in a small open economy model driven by endowment and portfolio flow shocks, with endogenous FX market depth and a lower bound constraint on FX reserves. In a competitive equilibrium, large capital flows increase conditional exchange rate volatility and make FX markets more shallow. Unlike in the unconstrained case, the central bank's optimal interventions are not solely targeted at offsetting inefficient fluctuations in the UIP premium but also incorporate a forward-looking element due to the risk of depleting reserves. We show that this environment engenders optimal time-consistent FXI policy that is state-dependent. FX sales are more effective than FX purchases, and the policy may respond less or more than one-for-one to capital outflows, depending on their size and the economy's net foreign asset position. Adopting the policy delivers sizable welfare gains, significantly exceeding those from a simple rule directed at stabilizing current capital flows, but only if the initial level of FX reserves is sufficiently far from its effective lower bound.
Playing with Blocs: Quantifying Decoupling
We adopt a data-driven approach to measure trade decoupling over 2015-2023. Countries are classified into three groups according to changes in their data-inferred trade costs with the US and China: those shifting toward the US bloc, those shifting toward the China bloc, and those with no change in alignment. We document that while cross-bloc trade costs rose, they were accompanied by falling within-bloc trade costs, with average trade costs falling marginally in line with global trade resilience. We use a quantitative model to compute the real income effects of this reconfiguration of trade costs. Model simulations suggest that real income in the median country in the world, and the median country within each bloc, rose by 0.4-0.6%. Finally, we find a modest amount of bloc misalignment: the median country would be better off switching blocs. These results suggest that trade decoupling may not follow trade-driven economic interests.
Speaking to the Markets: The Role of IMF Announcements in Investors’ Confidence
This paper examines the effect of IMF staff and executive board announcements on sovereign bond spreads across emerging and developing economies during economic uncertainty. We derive testable predictions from a stylized model in which IMF announcements serve as a signal to ambiguity-averse investors, narrowing their posterior beliefs about macroeconomic parameters and lowering the ambiguity premium in bond pricing. To empirically assess this, we train a large language model to identify and categorize economic signals by topic, assessing both the sentiment and the intensity of their coverage. The analysis yields several key insights. First, IMF announcements exhibit strong interdependencies among topics indicating a holistic approach to economic diagnostics. Second, using a local projection approach, we show that increase in the positivity of an IMF press release’s tone leads to a significant reduction in sovereign spreads in the short term. This effect is more pronounced for countries with higher spreads, larger program size, and for topics such as debt, FX and reserves, and fiscal.
Promoting Climate-Resilient and Green Development in Africa | Africa Perspectives
A conversation on how sub-Saharan Africa can promote climate-resilient and green development. African Department director Abebe Aemro Selassie hosts the premiere episode of Africa Perspectives.
Zambia: Towards a More Resilient and Inclusive Future
A discussion with University of Zambia students on how Zambia is making progress in its reform efforts to restore sustainability, invest in youth, combat corruption, and attract investment and the role of the IMF.
Strengthening Institutions for Sustainable Growth in the Post-COVID World
The conference provides an opportunity to discuss how South Asia can build on its development success in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions to achieve its potential.
The Resilience and Sustainability Trust - A Dialogue with Countries
A discussion on how the Resilience and Sustainability Trust fits wider climate objectives at the country and global level.
Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and North Africa, October 2022
Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, presents the IMF’s latest economic outlook and growth projections for the MENA region
Living on the Edge: IMF Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa Nairobi Launch
A presentation and discussion of the October 2022 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Developing Economies Seminars
FCDO/IMF Project
