Download or read book The Chair s Summing Up Independent Evaluation Office The IMF s Emergency Response to the COVID 19 Pandemic written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2023-03-20 with total page 3 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (IEO), which provides an early evaluation of the Fund’s emergency response to the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to draw lessons from the experience for responding to possible future global crises. They highlighted the report’s key finding that the Fund’s response was effective and agile to a crisis like no other, despite the extraordinary challenges and risks, as the Fund rapidly adapted its lending framework and internal processes to serve the membership, help to close large financing gaps, and give confidence to the membership and markets by making its resources available expeditiously under adequate safeguards. Besides lending, Directors noted that the Fund also undertook useful analytical work and gave extensive and timely policy advice and capacity development. They welcomed the report’s finding that the Fund’s corporate response was adapted quickly, including by reprioritizing work, introducing HR and budget initiatives, and swiftly embracing the virtual environment. Directors especially commended staff for their strong dedication during these challenging circumstances.

Download or read book The IMF s Emergency Response to the COVID 19 Pandemic written by and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This evaluation assesses how well the Fund adapted its lending framework, its processes for formulating the economic outlook and policy advice, and its internal HR and budgetary practices to help countries during the emergency phase--January 2020 to April 2021--of an unprecedented global shock.

Download or read book Statement by the Managing Director on the Independent Evaluation Office Report on The IMF s Emergency Response to the COVID 19 Pandemic written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2023-03-20 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the evaluation notes, the Fund’s rapid response was not without costs and risks. The decision to provide extraordinary access, including through emergency financing, in the face of this unprecedented crisis has inevitably raised pressures on the Fund’s own, and its members’, balance sheets. Moreover, according to the report, some stakeholders did not feel adequately consulted in the initial weeks of the pandemic, staff experienced enormous work pressures, and in at least a few instances, national authorities did not perceive that the way policy guidance on 2 access was applied was entirely evenhanded. I am confident we can learn from the experience and do even better in the future; and I believe the IEO’s high-level recommendations will help us to do so.

Download or read book Enhancing the Emergency Financing Toolkit Responding To The COVID 19 Pandemic written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a human toll and has unleashed a series of shocks on the Fund’s entire membership, creating severe disruption in the global economic and financial system. As a result, many emerging market and developing country (EMDC) members face urgent and unprecedented financing needs, creating significant immediate demand for Fund resources. In order to respond to members’ large and urgent financing needs, the paper proposes to enhance the Fund’s emergency financing toolkit, through a temporary increase in access limits for both the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), available to all members, and the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), available to Poverty Reduction Growth Trust-eligible members only. It is proposed to increase these access limits for a proposed period of six months, which may be extended by the Executive Board. A companion Board paper sets out proposals to accelerate Board consideration of member requests for financing under the RCF and RFI, completion of reviews and requests for changes in access in existing arrangements, and requests for grant assistance under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust.

Download or read book COVID 19 She Cession The Employment Penalty of Taking Care of Young Children written by Ms.Stefania Fabrizio and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 outbreak and the measures to contain the virus have caused severe disruptions to labor supply and demand worldwide. Understanding who is bearing the burden of the crisis and what drives it is crucial for designing policies going forward. Using the U.S. monthly Current Population Survey data, this paper analyzes differences in employment responses between men and women. The main finding is that less educated women with young children were the most adversely affected during the first nine months of the crisis.The loss of employment of women with young children due to the burden of additional childcare is estimated to account for 45 percent of the increase in the employment gender gap, and to reduce total output by 0.36 percent between April and November 2020.

Download or read book Improving Pandemic Preparedness written by Thomas Bollyky and published by Council on Foreign Relations Press. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States and the world were unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, despite decades of warnings highlighting the inevitability of global pandemics and the need for international coordination. The failure to prioritize and adequately fund preparedness and effectively implement response plans has exacted a heavy human and economic price, and the crisis is not yet over. Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases are a threat to global and national security that neither the United States nor the world can afford to ignore. This Task Force proposes a comprehensive strategy that includes institutional reforms and policy innovations to help the United States and the multilateral system perform better in this crisis and when the next one emerges. Without increased U.S. leadership on and adequate investment in pandemic preparedness and response, the United States and the world will remain unnecessarily vulnerable to epidemic threats. The Council on Foreign Relations sponsors Independent Task Forces to assess issues of current and critical importance to U.S. foreign policy and provide policymakers with concrete judgments and recommendations. Diverse in backgrounds and perspectives, Task Force members aim to reach a meaningful consensus on policy through private deliberations. Once launched, Task Forces are independent of CFR and are solely responsible for the content of their reports. Task Force members are asked to join a consensus signifying that they endorse the general policy thrust and judgments reached by the group, though not necessarily every finding and recommendation. Each Task Force member also has the option of putting forward an additional or a dissenting view.

Download or read book International Monetary Fund Annual Report 2021 written by International Monetary Fund. Secretary's Department and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A recovery is underway, but the economic fallout from the global pandemic could be with us for years to come. With the crisis exacerbating prepandemic vulnerabilities, country prospects are diverging. Nearly half of emerging market and developing economies and some middle-income countries are now at risk of falling further behind, undoing much of the progress made toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Download or read book After Effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic Prospects for Medium Term Economic Damage written by Mr. Philip Barrett and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-07-30 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a severe global recession with differential impacts within and across countries. This paper examines the possible persistent effects (scarring) of the pandemic on the economy and the channels through which they may occur. History suggests that deep recessions often leave long-lived scars, particularly to productivity. Importantly, financial instabilities—typically associated with worse scarring—have been largely avoided in the current crisis so far. While medium-term output losses are anticipated to be lower than after the global financial crisis, they are still expected to be substantial. The degree of expected scarring varies across countries, depending on the structure of economies and the size of the policy response. Emerging market and developing economies are expected to suffer more scarring than advanced economies.

Download or read book Global Corporate Stress Tests Impact of the COVID 19 Pandemic and Policy Responses written by Mr. Thierry Tressel and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-08-06 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corporate sector vulnerabilities have been a central policy topic since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we analyze some 17,000 publicly listed firms in a sample of 24 countries, and assess their ability to withstand shocks induced by the pandemic to their liquidity, viability and solvency. For this purpose, we develop novel multi-factor sensitivity analysis and dynamic scenario-based stress test techniques to assess the impact of shocks on firm’s ability to service their debt, and on their liquidity and solvency positions. Applying the October 2020 WEO baseline and adverse scenarios, we find that a large share of publicly-listed firms become vulnerable as a result of the pandemic shock and additional borrowing needs to overcome cash shortfalls are large, while firm behavioral responses and policies substantially help overcome the impact of the shock in the near term. Looking forward, while interest coverage ratios tend to improve over time after the initial shock as earnings recover in line with projected macroeconomic conditions, liquidity needs remain substantial in many firms across countries and across industries, while insolvencies rise over time in specific industries. To inform policy debates, we offer an approach to a triage between viable and unviable firms, and find that the needs for liquidity support of viable firms remain important beyond 2020, and that medium-term debt restructuring needs and liquidations of firms may be substantial in the medium-term.

Download or read book Corporate Liquidity and Solvency in Europe during COVID 19 The Role of Policies written by Mr.Christian H Ebeke and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The spread of COVID-19, containment measures, and general uncertainty led to a sharp reduction in activity in the first half of 2020. Europe was hit particularly hard—the economic contraction in 2020 is estimated to have been among the largest in the world—with potentially severe repercussions on its nonfinancial corporations. A wave of corporate bankruptcies would generate mass unemployment, and a loss of productive capacity and firm-specific human capital. With many SMEs in Europe relying primarily on the banking sector for external finance, stress in the corporate sector could easily translate into pressures in the banking system (Aiyar et al., forthcoming).

Download or read book Man Out written by Andrew L. Yarrow and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of men who are hurting—and hurting America by their absence Man Out describes the millions of men on the sidelines of life in the United States. Many of them have been pushed out of the mainstream because of an economy and society where the odds are stacked against them; others have chosen to be on the outskirts of twenty-first-century America. These men are disconnected from work, personal relationships, family and children, and civic and community life. They may be angry at government, employers, women, and "the system" in general—and millions of them have done time in prison and have cast aside many social norms. Sadly, too many of these men are unsure what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Wives or partners reject them; children are estranged from them; and family, friends, and neighbors are embarrassed by them. Many have disappeared into a netherworld of drugs, alcohol, poor health, loneliness, misogyny, economic insecurity, online gaming, pornography, other off-the-grid corners of the internet, and a fantasy world of starting their own business or even writing the Great American novel. Most of the men described in this book are poorly educated, with low incomes and often with very few prospects for rewarding employment. They are also disproportionately found among millennials, those over 50, and African American men. Increasingly, however, these lost men are discovered even in tony suburbs and throughout the nation. It is a myth that men on the outer corners of society are only lower-middle-class white men dislocated by technology and globalization. Unlike those who primarily blame an unjust economy, government policies, or a culture sanctioning "laziness," Man Out explores the complex interplay between economics and culture. It rejects the politically charged dichotomy of seeing such men as either victims or culprits. These men are hurting, and in turn they are hurting families and hurting America. It is essential to address their problems. Man Out draws on a wide range of data and existing research as well as interviews with several hundred men, women, and a wide variety of economists and other social scientists, social service providers and physicians, and with employers, through a national online survey and in-depth fieldwork in several communities.

Download or read book Policy Advice to Asia in the COVID 19 Era written by Changyong Rhee and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Asia-Pacific region was the first to be hit by the COVID-19 pandemic; it put a strain on its people and economies, and policymaking became exceptionally difficult. This departmental paper contains the assessment of the key challenges facing Asia at this critical juncture and policy advice to the region both to address the current challenges and to build the foundations for a more sustainable and inclusive future. The paper focuses on (1) adjusting to the COVID-19 shock, (2) using unconventional policies when policy space is limited, (3) dealing with debt, and (4) helping the vulnerable and greening the recovery. The paper first presents the different ways countries are adjusting to the COVID-19 shock.

Download or read book Progress Report to The IMFC on The Activities of The Independent Evaluation Office of The IMF written by International Monetary Fund. Independent Evaluation Office and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2024-04-19 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 2023 Annual Meetings, the IEO has continued making progress on the two ongoing evaluations and will launch a new evaluation—on IMF Advice on Fiscal Policy—targeted for completion in the second half of 2025. The IEO has collaborated with staff on the 13th Periodic Monitoring Report (PMR) and the management implementation plans (MIPs) that follow up on the Board-endorsed recommendations of the completed evaluations of The IMF and Capacity Development and The IMF’s Emergency Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The external evaluation of the IEO is expected to be completed by mid-2024.

Download or read book A Global Strategy to Manage the Long Term Risks of COVID 19 written by Ruchir Agarwal and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pandemic is not over, and the health and economic losses continue to grow. It is now evident that COVID-19 will be with us for the long term, and there are very different scenarios for how it could evolve, from a mild endemic scenario to a dangerous variant scenario. This realization calls for a new strategy that manages both the uncertainty and the long-term risks of COVID-19. There are four key policy implications of such as strategy. First, we need to achieve equitable access beyond vaccines to encompass a comprehensive toolkit. Second, we must monitor the evolving virus and dynamically upgrade the toolkit. Third, we must transition from the acute response to a sustainable strategy toward COVID-19, balanced and integrated with other health and social priorities. Fourth, we need a unified risk-mitigation approach to future infectious disease threats beyond COVID-19. Infectious diseases with pandemic potential are a threat to global economic and health security. The international community should recognize that its pandemic financing addresses a systemic risk to the global economy, not just the development need of a particular country. Accordingly, it should allocate additional funding to fight pandemics and strengthen health systems both domestically and overseas. This will require about $15 billion in grants this year and $10 billion annually after that.

Download or read book A Proposal to End the COVID 19 Pandemic written by Ruchir Agarwal and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-05-19 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urgent steps are needed to arrest the rising human toll and economic strain from the COVID-19 pandemic that are exacerbating already-diverging recoveries. Pandemic policy is also economic policy as there is no durable end to the economic crisis without an end to the health crisis. Building on existing initiatives, this paper proposes pragmatic actions at the national and multilateral level to expeditiously defeat the pandemic. The proposal targets: (1) vaccinating at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and at least 60 percent by the first half of 2022, (2) tracking and insuring against downside risks, and (3) ensuring widespread testing and tracing, maintaining adequate stocks of therapeutics, and enforcing public health measures in places where vaccine coverage is low. The benefits of such measures at about $9 trillion far outweigh the costs which are estimated to be around $50 billion—of which $35 billion should be paid by grants from donors and the residual by national governments potentially with the support of concessional financing from bilateral and multilateral agencies. The grant funding gap identified by the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator amounts to about $22 billion, which the G20 recognizes as important to address. This leaves an estimated $13 billion in additional grant contributions needed to finance our proposal. Importantly, the strategy requires global cooperation to secure upfront financing, upfront vaccine donations, and at-risk investment to insure against downside risks for the world.

Download or read book COVID 19 written by Jamie K. Wardman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-28 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive book looks at COVID-19, along with other recent infectious disease outbreaks, with the broad aim of providing constructive lessons and critical reflections from across a wide range of perspectives and disciplinary interests within the risk analysis field. The chapters in this edited volume probe the roles of risk communication, risk perception, and risk science in helping to manage the ever-growing pandemic that was declared a public health emergency of international concern in the beginning of 2020. A few chapters in the book also include relevant content discussing past disease outbreaks, such as Zika, Ebola and MERS-CoV. This book distils past and present knowledge, appraises current responses, introduces new ideas and data, and offers key recommendations, which will help illuminate different aspects of the global health crisis. It also explores how different constructive insights offered from a ‘risk perspective’ might inform decisions on how best to proceed in response as the pandemic continues. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Risk Research.

Download or read book The COVID 19 Impact on Corporate Leverage and Financial Fragility written by Sharjil M. Haque and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-11-05 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We study the impact of the COVID-19 recession on capital structure of publicly listed U.S. firms. Our estimates suggest leverage (Net Debt/Asset) decreased by 5.3 percentage points from the pre-shock mean of 19.6 percent, while debt maturity increased moderately. This de-leveraging effect is stronger for firms exposed to significant rollover risk, while firms whose businesses were most vulnerable to social distancing did not reduce leverage. We rationalize our evidence through a structural model of firm value that shows lower expected growth rate and higher volatility of cash flows following COVID-19 reduced optimal levels of corporate leverage. Model-implied optimal leverage indicates firms which did not de-lever became over-leveraged. We find default probability deteriorates most in large, over-leveraged firms and those that were stressed pre-COVID. Additional stress tests predict value of these firms will be less than one standard deviation away from default if cash flows decline by 20 percent.