Africa and the Great Recession: Changing Times

Posted on May 14, 2012 by iMFdirect

Sub-Saharan Africa’s solid growth record has been supported by several factors, including significantly less civil conflict, the generally favorable commodity price developments benefiting Africa’s natural resource exporters; and the extensive debt relief provided to most highly-indebted poor countries. But I would ascribe key importance to sound policy choices by African governments – both in terms of pursuing appropriate macroeconomic policies and pressing ahead with important reform measures.

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Africa, Asia, Debt Relief, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, growth, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, LICs, Low-income countries, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Jobs and Growth: Can’t Have One Without the Other?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by iMFdirect

Five years after the onset of the Great Recession, 16 million more people are likely to remain unemployed this year than in 2007. This estimate is for a set of countries for which the IMF forecasts unemployment rates; adding in some countries for which the International Labour Organization provides forecasts only boosts the number. The bulk of this increase in unemployed people has been in the so-called advanced economies (the IMF’s term for countries with high per capita incomes).

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, Finance, Fiscal policy, G-20, Globalization, growth, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, LICs, Low-income countries, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Spring Is in the Air in Parts of Latin America

Posted on April 25, 2012 by iMFdirect

Most of Latin America stands out from much of the rest of the world—not for great economic performance, but for good performance in a subpar environment. Growth is generally solid, despite a slowdown late last year owing to policy tightening and global volatility. Under our baseline scenario, we expect regional growth to moderate to near 3¾ percent in 2012, down from 4½ percent last year (but modestly up from our January projections).

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Emerging Markets, Employment, G-20, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, LICs, Multilateral Cooperation | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Top Links from the IMF – Global and Regional Economic Analysis for April

Posted on April 22, 2012 by iMFdirect

The IMF and World Bank have just wrapped up their Spring Meetings for April, dominated by agreement on a huge boost to the anti-crisis firewall to prevent contagion in the event of a flare-up.

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Africa, Asia, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, Finance, Financial Crisis, Globalization, growth, IMF, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, LICs, Low-income countries, Middle East, Public debt | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Mediocre Growth, High Risks, and The Long Road Ahead

Posted on April 17, 2012 by iMFdirect

Geopolitical tension affecting the oil market is surely a risk. The main risk remains, however, that of another acute crisis in Europe. The building of the “firewalls”, when it is completed, will represent major progress. By themselves, however, firewalls cannot solve the difficult fiscal, competitiveness, and growth issues that some of these countries face. Bad news on the macroeconomic or the political front still carries the risk of triggering the type of dynamics we saw last fall.

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Africa, Asia, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, Finance, Financial Crisis, Fiscal policy, Fiscal Stimulus, Globalization, growth, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, LICs, Low-income countries, Middle East, Public debt, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Youth Speaking Out

Posted on March 5, 2012 by iMFdirect

Young people, hardest hit by the global economic downturn, are speaking out and demanding change. Coming of age in the Great Recession, the world’s youth face an uncertain future, with lengthening job lines, diminished opportunities, and bleaker prospects that are taking a heavy emotional toll. The March 2012 issue of Finance & Development magazine looks at the challenges facing young people today.

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Africa, Asia, Civil Society, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, Finance, Financial Crisis, Financial sector supervision, Fiscal policy, Global Governance, Globalization, growth, IMF, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, LICs, Low-income countries, Middle East, Public debt, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Africa’s Growth Puzzle: Better Ways to Fill Infrastructure Gaps

Posted on February 28, 2012 by iMFdirect

The issue of reviving or maintaining economic growth is a the forefront of policymakers’ minds all around the world. Of course, the policies needed to achieve that differ from region-to-region, country-to-country.

For many countries in Africa, weak infrastructure is an obstacle to raising growth.

In a recent interview with the IMF’s Survey online magazine, Andrew Berg of the IMF’s Research Department (and one of our contributing bloggers) discusses how Africa can step up investment in its infrastructure by augmenting traditional sources of financing with foreign borrowing and private investment.

Filed under: Africa, Economic research, growth, IMF, LICs, Low-income countries, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Making the Most of Bad Situations

Posted on December 13, 2011 by iMFdirect

Governments in low-income countries are having to deal with a lot of bad news these days. Slow growth in the advanced economies is dampening demand for their exports and affecting inflows of investment, aid, and remittances. Changes in credit conditions elsewhere influence the availability of trade finance. Volatility in commodity prices creates problems for both importers and exporters. Meanwhile, climactic and other natural disasters continue to occur at the local and regional level.

Filed under: Africa, concessional lending, Economic Crisis, IMF, International Monetary Fund, LICs, Low-income countries | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Heartbreak and Hardship—Finding a Way Out for Fragile States

Posted on September 7, 2011 by iMFdirect

War-torn Iraq, quake-ravaged Haiti, conflict-devastated Sierra Leone. So many countries around the world face the legacy of terrible hardships that have left them scarred and fragile. Some have questioned whether the IMF has a meaningful role to play in these countries, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

A recent review found that the IMF has played an important positive role in fragile states. This doesn’t mean we always got it right. We can do better. There is plenty of scope to adapt how we engage in these countries; to be more flexible and deepen cooperation with other development partners.

In this post, Dominique Desruelle discusses a few ideas that we’ll be exploring—and discussing with stakeholders—in the months ahead, including at a high-level public seminar in Washington later this month.

Filed under: concessional lending, IMF, International Monetary Fund, LICs, Low-income countries | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

iMFdirect—Our Top 10 Posts

Posted on August 21, 2011 by iMFdirect

As iMFdirect looks back at two years since our blog on global economics was launched in August 2009, we’ve compiled a list of the posts that have drawn the most attention.

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Africa, Asia, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Europe, Financial Crisis, Financial regulation, Financial sector supervision, Fiscal policy, G-20, Globalization, growth, IMF, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, LICs, Middle East, Multilateral Cooperation, Public debt, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 244 other followers