Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

The pamphlet (which updates the 1995 Guidelines for Fiscal Adjustment) presents the IMF’s approach to fiscal adjustment, and focuses on the role that sound government finances play in promoting macroeconomic stability and growth. Structured around five practical questions—when to adjust, how to assess the fiscal position, what makes for successful adjustment, how to carry out adjustment, and which institutions can help—it covers topics such as tax policies, debt sustainability, fiscal responsibility laws, and transparency.

More than two years ago the European Central Bank (ECB) adopted a negative interest rate policy (NIRP) to achieve its price stability objective. Negative interest rates have so far supported easier financial conditions and contributed to a modest expansion in credit, demonstrating that the zero lower bound is less binding than previously thought. However, interest rate cuts also weigh on bank profitability. Substantial rate cuts may at some point outweigh the benefits from higher asset values and stronger aggregate demand. Further monetary accommodation may need to rely more on credit easing and an expansion of the ECB’s balance sheet rather than substantial additional reductions in the policy rate.

This paper explains the IMF approach to economic stabilization. It argues that a Fund-supported program is a process, comprising six broadly defined phases, that evolves along a multiplicity of potential pathways. The paper discusses the three-pronged approach to stabilization at the core of all IMF-supported programs, stresses the iterative character of “financial programming,” and explains the rationale for setting quantitative performance criteria for fiscal and monetary policy in IMF-supported arrangements. A main theme is that IMF-supported programs contain a great deal of flexibility to respond both to differences in circumstances and to changes in conditions in individual cases.

Macroeconomic policy and sequencing issues increasingly have been addressed explicitly in the design of recent adjustment loans, but there still is scope for: (1) strengthening the analytical framework and macroeconomic policy conditionality in adjustment loans, and (2) greater realism about the time and external resources needed to achieve adjustment and growth objectives.

Over the past year, developing countries have started to recover from the 1997-99 global financial crisis. The elements underlying the recovery: strong industrial country growth, robust global trade, and firming commodity prices, should permit more 'self-financing' and more sustainable growth in developing countries than has been the case following previous crises. International capital market flows, however, remain selective and volatile. This publication provides a comprehensive look at external debt and financial flows to developing countries. Volume one examines these developments in detail and charts the prospects for private and public global development finance. It explores the special risks and benefits of short-term capital flows, reviews policy options for countries to safeguard against the volatility of private capital flows, and draws lessons from the past century's booms and busts in private flows to emerging markets. It also reviews debt-structuring agreements and privatisation transactions and contains summary data for country groups. Volume two provides statistical data for 137 countries reporting debt under the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. The country tables present a wealth of information about each country's external debt and cover major economic aggregates and key debt ratios. Data is also provided on debt service paid, average terms of new commitments, currency composition of long-term debt, debt restructuring, and scheduled debt service projections. To facilitate cross-country comparisons of key statistics, summary statistical tables are provided for regional and income groups. This publication is available on a Windows-based CD-ROM that contains all the time-series data from the World Bank Debtor Reporting System, allowing users to graph, map, and extract the data in many formats; as well as the contents of both volumes in searchable page format.