Politics – IMF Blog

The Wealth of Nations: Governments Can Better Manage What They Own and Owe

IMFBlog2018-10-25T15:23:26+00:00October 9, 2018|

By Vitor Gaspar, Jason Harris, and Alexander Tieman

October 10, 2018

عربي,中文, Español, Français, Baˈhasa indoneˈsia, 日本語, Português, Русский

A firefighter in Auckland, New Zealand: when governments know what they own they can put their assets to better use and can earn about 3 percent of GDP more in revenues to spend on citizens’ well being (Photo: Rafael Ben-Ari/Newscom)

What is the state of your personal finances? You probably think first about your debts: your mortgage, your credit card balance, and your student loans. But you probably also think about how much cash is sitting in the bank, the value of your house, and the rest of your nest egg.

Surprisingly, most governments do not approach their finances this way. (more…)

Shining a Bright Light into the Dark Corners of Weak Governance and Corruption

IMFBlog2018-04-27T10:08:05+00:00April 22, 2018|

By Christine Lagarde

April 22, 2018

Versions in عربي (Arabic), 中文 (Chinese), Español (Spanish), Français (French), baˈhasa indoneˈsia (Indonesian), 日本語 (Japanese), Português (Portuguese), Русский (Russian)

Anti-corruption strategies require broader regulatory and institutional reforms (photo: Kritchanut/iStock).

The IMF Executive Board has just endorsed a new framework for stepping up engagement on governance and corruption in our member countries. Let me talk about why this is important and what it means for our work.

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Bringing Down High Debt

IMFBlog2018-04-19T13:01:08+00:00April 18, 2018|

By Vitor Gaspar and Laura Jaramillo

April 18, 2018

Versions in عربي (Arabic), 中文 (Chinese), Español (Spanish), Français (French), 日本語 (Japanese), Português (Portuguese), Русский (Russian)

High debt makes governments’ financing vulnerable to sudden changes in market sentiment (photo: NYSE-LUCAS JACKSON-REUTERS Newscom).

Global debt hit a new record high of $164 trillion in 2016, the equivalent of 225 percent of global GDP. Both private and public debt have surged over the past decade. High debt makes government’s financing vulnerable to sudden changes in market sentiment. It also limits a government’s ability to provide support to the economy in the event of a downturn or a financial crisis.

Countries should use the window of opportunity afforded by the economic upswing to strengthen the state of their fiscal affairs. The April 2018 Fiscal Monitor explores how countries can reduce government deficits and debt in a growth-friendly way.

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Fiscal Rules: Make them Easy to Love and Hard to Cheat

IMFBlog2018-04-18T10:52:26+00:00April 13, 2018|

By Xavier Debrun, Luc Eyraud, Andrew Hodge, Victor Lledo, Catherine Pattillo, Abdelhak Senhadji

April 13, 2018

Versions in Español (Spanish), Français (French), Português (Portuguese)

The national debt clock in New York City: a fiscal rule, like the debt ceiling, should not be set too low or too high. (photo: Frances M. Roberts/Newscom)

Rules to contain lavish government deficits are most effective if countries design them to be simple, flexible, and enforceable in the face of changing economic circumstances.

In new analysis, we look at fiscal rules in over 90 countries and, based on their experiences, find that the rules put in the place over the last three decades often were too complex, overly rigid, and difficult to enforce. (more…)

The Digital Gamble: New Technology Transforms Fiscal Policy

IMFBlog2018-04-17T10:22:59+00:00April 12, 2018|

By Vitor Gaspar and Geneviève Verdier

April 12, 2018

Versions in عربي (Arabic), 中文 (Chinese), Español (Spanish), 日本語 (Japanese), Português (Portuguese), Русский (Russian)

Traffic in Singapore: the city uses digital technology for road pricing to manage road congestion congestion (photo: Kua Chee Siong/ SPH/Newscom)..

In Rwanda, digitally-monitored drones deliver blood supplies to hospitals. In Estonia, it takes five minutes to file taxes and 99 percent of government services are available online. Singapore was the first city to implement electronic road pricing to manage congestion. The world is becoming digital, and reliable, timely, and accurate information is available at the push of a button. Governments are following suit, using digital tools for tax and expenditure policy, public financial management, and public service delivery. (more…)

Managing Debt Vulnerabilities in Low-Income and Developing Countries

IMFBlog2018-04-03T15:10:22+00:00March 22, 2018|

By Tao Zhang

March 22, 2018

Versions in Português (Portuguese)

Congested streets in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In a third of low-income countries, including Bangladesh, government deficits finance investment in much needed infrastructure (photo: Motoya Taguchi/Jiji Press/Newscom).

Government debt in some of the world’s poorest countries is rising to risky levels, a new IMF report shows. The report looks at economic developments and prospects among the world’s low-income countries, which account for a fifth of the world’s population but only four percent of global output. (more…)

The Economic Scars of Crises and Recessions

IMFBlog2018-03-26T13:06:48+00:00March 21, 2018|

By Valerie Cerra and Sweta C. Saxena

March 21, 2018

Version in 日本語 (Japanese), Português (Portuguese)

New study finds that all types of recessions lead to permanent losses in output and welfare (photo: Peshkov/iStock by GettyImages).

Economic recessions are typically described as short-term periods of negative economic growth. According to the traditional business cycle view, output moves up and down around its long-term upward trend and after a recession, it recovers to its pre-recession trend. Our new study casts doubt on this traditional view and shows that all types of recessions—including those arising from external shocks and small domestic macroeconomic policy mistakes—lead to permanent losses in output and welfare. (more…)

Welfare Versus GDP: What Makes People Better Off

IMFBlog2018-03-07T14:57:14+00:00March 7, 2018|

By Geoffrey Bannister and Alexandros Mourmouras

March 7, 2018

Oslo, Norway. In rich countries like Norway, that have greater life expectancy, more leisure, and lower inequality, measured well-being is higher than income (photo: iStock by Getty Images).

For years, economists have worked to develop a way of measuring general well-being and comparing it across countries. The main metric has been differences in income or gross domestic product per person. But economists have long known that GDP is an imperfect measure of well-being, counting just the value of goods and services bought and sold in markets.

The challenge is to account for non-market factors such as the value of leisure, health, and home production, such as cleaning, cooking and childcare, as well as the negative byproducts of economic activity, such as pollution and inequality. (more…)

Money Sent Home by Migrants Buffers Income Shocks

IMFBlog2018-03-01T09:40:44+00:00February 28, 2018|

By Kimberly Beaton, Luis Catão and Zsoka Koczan

February 28, 2018

Western Union, Singapore: In 2015, migrants sent home $441 billion – almost three times the total value of official development assistance (photo: iStock by GettyImages).

Worldwide, 250 million people, or 3 percent of the global population, live outside their country of birth. Many of these migrants maintain strong ties with their home countries, sending part of their incomes to families back home. In 2015, migrants sent home $441 billion – almost three times the total value of official development assistance.

About 45 percent of these remittances flow from advanced economies to emerging market and developing economies. These funds have the potential to be an important mechanism for sharing income risks on a global scale. That is, if a family living in a developing country loses part of its income, higher remittances from relatives abroad could help compensate. (more…)

The Buzz of Populism and Its Pull on the Economy

IMFBlog2018-02-09T09:11:02+00:00February 9, 2018|

By IMFBlog

February 9, 2018

(photo: Berkeley Review)

If you believe the economy can explain the rise of populism, political scientist Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser says it’s a bit more complicated than that.

“If you think about populist radical right parties in Western Europe, the party that gets the most votes is in Switzerland. And the economy in Switzerland is running perfectly!”

Populism has become a bit of a buzz word of late, and it was the subject of a seminar at the 2018 American Economic Association’s Annual Meeting. The IMF’s Antonio Spilimbergo organized the panel, which included Kaltwasser and economic stalwarts Dani Rodrik and Raghuram Rajan. (more…)