By Robert Gregory, Huidan Lin, and Martin Mühleisen In the face of unprecedented uncertainty and the severe economic impact triggered by COVID-19, the Fund continues to adapt its lending. At the same time, it aims to ensure realistic targets, uphold the credibility of programs, and foster national ownership. To date, the Fund has provided financial […]
Tag: pandemic
Chart of the WeekTrade as a Tool for an Efficient Recovery
By Jesus Gonzalez-Garcia and Yuanchen Yang As economies now look for paths to recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, new evidence reaffirms that policies for more open and trade-integrated economies could significantly benefit domestic competition and ultimately may help lower costs for consumers in emerging and developing economies. A recent Working Paper, building on the Regional […]
Supporting Migrants and Remittances as COVID-19 Rages On
By Saad Noor Quayyum and Roland Kangni Kpodar Just as COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted some communities more than others, globally, the virus has had an oversized negative impact on migrant workers. Perhaps surprisingly, despite the bleak experience for foreign overseas workers during the pandemic, the effect on remittances—the flow of money they send back home—has, […]
How Strong Infrastructure Governance Can End Waste in Public Investment
By Gerd Schwartz, Manal Fouad, Torben Hansen, and Geneviève Verdier COVID-19 has had a profound impact on people, firms, and economies all over the world. While countries have ramped up public lifelines to individuals and firms they will face enormous challenges to recover from the pandemic, amidst low economic activity and unprecedented levels of debt. […]
Healing the Fractures of the Global Economy
Gita Bhatt As the world seeks to comprehend the new normal, we face many unknowns. Will jobs come back? How will we travel again? What will recovery look like? Much is still a question mark. In fact, we are living in the most “unmeasurable of times,” writes the IMF’s Geoffrey Okamoto, making it hard to […]
COVID-19: Without Help, Low-Income Developing Countries Risk a Lost Decade
By Daniel Gurara, Stefania Fabrizio, and Johannes Wiegand While the COVID-19 crisis is sending shockwaves around the globe, low-income developing countries (LIDCs) are in a particularly difficult position to respond. LIDCs have both been hit hard by external shocks and are suffering severe domestic contractions from the spread of the virus and the lockdown measures […]
Chart of the WeekTourism Trauma and COVID-19
By Cyril Rebillard Pandemic-related lockdowns, flight cancellations, and border closures may be putting a crimp on summer vacation plans. However, the precipitous drop in tourism will have an outsized impact on countries that rely on foreign travelers—with potentially large-scale effects on their economies’ national accounts. Costa Rica, Greece, Morocco, Portugal, and Thailand could be among […]
Top 10 Blogs on COVID-19
By IMFBlog The pandemic has altered people’s lives in both enormous and small ways. Our editors have picked the top recent blogs that dig into the details of what COVID-19 means for people: the impact on women and the young, what it means for the food supply, and how it can increase already growing inequality, […]
Chart of the WeekAging Economies May Benefit Less from Fiscal Stimulus
By Jiro Honda and Hiroaki Miyamoto In the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers around the world are undertaking fiscal stimulus—a combination of spending increases and tax reductions—to support their economies. Even before the present crisis, the importance of fiscal policy has been increasing, with monetary policy constrained by near-zero interest rates. Our new […]
COVID-19 Response in Emerging Market Economies: Conventional Policies and Beyond
By Martin Mühleisen, Tryggvi Gudmundsson, and Hélène Poirson Ward The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emerging market economies far exceeded that of the global financial crisis. Unlike previous crises, the response has been decisive just like in advanced economies. Yet, conventional policies are reaching their limit and unorthodox policies are not without risks. […]
