The headline deficit reported by the official budget is nar-rowly defined and thus misleadingly low. We calculate and present the cash-basis consolidated deficit, which is more than twice as large. The large deficit helps to avoid a fiscal cliff like the one in 2021.

This week’s Digital Finance Developments explores how the digital transformation of the economy is shaping international policymakers’ agendas and creating new opportunities for public-private engagement, particularly within development initiatives.

At our IIF Sustainable Finance and Global Debt & Financial Stability Roundtables last week, key themes included net zero transition finance as well as the impact of higher funding costs for vulnerable sovereign and corporate borrowers.

China’s gigantic official foreign asset is still a black box. This note looks into the changing structures and management of China’s foreign reserves and other foreign currency assets.

Russia in 2022 had a large “excess” current account surplus, … reflected in abundant domestic liquidity and resilient growth. Counterpart to this wa...

Some $120 billion was added to the debt pile of frontier markets in 2022, bringing it to an all-time high of $3.6 trillion.

Kilicdaroglu is expected to win the presidential elections in the second round of votes on May 28, although the margin of error suggests that confidence in such a prediction should only be medium. The next government will face significant challenges, requiring but not necessarily leading to a pivot to orthodox policies.

The April 2023 U.S. Regulatory Update covers recent developments in cyber strategy, bank regulation, sanction implementation, and more.

The March 2023 edition of the Insurance Update provides targeted updates on IIF insurance activities and events.

GDP growth is expected to soften in 2023, weighed by weaker exports and domestic demand. Fiscal consolidation since 2020 helped improve the outlook for Romania’s sovereign credit rating, while spending slippages ahead of the 2024 elections may pose upside risks to the fiscal deficit.

MENAP non-oil countries are facing unprecedented challenges. We expect growth to slow sharply, and the current account and fiscal deficits to remain large.

Portfolio flows to EM stood at $9.4 bn in March. Equity and debt flows were $6.8 bn and $2.6 bn. Chinese equities posted $7.2 bn in inflows.

Markets have been focused on US bank deposit outflows, … fearing that such outflows could translate into weak lending.  The good news is there is li...

This week’s Digital Finance Developments explores the emerging field of regulatory technology (RegTech). We look at how and why financial services firms are adopting technologies to assist with regulatory obligations, and how regulators are using technology for supervision.

CCA countries have successfully managed to avoid any negative spillovers from Russian sanctions. Higher remittances and energy prices led to strong growth. However, risks of secondary sanctions remain, as Western officials begin to clamp down on countries potentially aiding sanction evasion.

The government submitted to Congress a long-awaited pension reform bill. We survey the main independent and official reviews on the proposal, focusing on the fiscal impact. While the reform introduces improvements in coverage, equity and sufficiency, these gains come at a steep fiscal cost.