The 2023 Annual Report of the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (the Committee) provides an overview of recent trends in global balance of payments and international investment position statistics, including the impact of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic on selected balance of payments components, particularly cross-border trade, travel, transport, and financial flows. The Report also summarizes the Committee’s work and presents the work program for the coming year.

The 2022 Annual Report of the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (the Committee) provides an overview of recent trends in global balance of payments and international investment position statistics, on this occasion with special emphasis on the significant effects of the pandemic on selected balance of payments components, particularly cross-border trade, tourism, and financial flows. The Report also summarizes the Committee’s work and presents the work program for the coming year.

The 2021 Annual Report1 of the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics (the Committee) provides an overview of recent trends in global balance of payments and international investment position statistics, on this occasion with special emphasis on the significant effects of the pandemic on selected balance of payments components, particularly cross-border trade, tourism, and financial flows. The Report also summarizes the Committee’s work and presents the work program for the coming year.

This book describes official statistics as a tool to hold up a mirror to society – but also as an instrument for those who can manipulate this mirror. It addresses the precarious interaction of politics, official statistics, and ethical principles. Three sets of themes can be derived from this relationship, which are the focus of this book: Political systems and guiding principles, official statistics as a science of the state, and ethical issues arising from them. Ultimately, the determining factor is the political system that exists in each case. The book contains eleven chapters. The first three focus on the key concepts of the book: power and morality, official statistics and policy making, and ethical principles for statistical work. Three further chapters focus on episodes that illustrate, as "drastic" examples, the misuse of official statistics over the past hundred years, covering the situation in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich and Greece. The remaining five chapters take up current topics that pose particular challenges to official statistics. These are the phenomena paraphrased by digitalisation, globalisation, happiness research, overpopulation, migration, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. The book is primarily aimed at statisticians working in national and international statistical institutions, but also at readers interested in statistics, national accounts, economic and statistics history, and ethical issues.

This Work Program puts forward an IMF Board agenda focused on activities of critical importance to our members. In line with the strategic directions laid out in the Fall 2021 Global Policy Agenda and the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) Communiqué, the Work Program supports three policy priorities: (i) vaccinate the world to combat the pandemic everywhere; (ii) calibrate bilateral and multilateral policies to support the recovery and reduce scarring and divergences; and (iii) accelerate the transformation of the global economy to make it greener, more digital, and inclusive. To deliver on this agenda, it is also important to ensure that the Fund remains appropriately equipped to maintain its role at the center of the global financial safety net.

The Palgrave Handbook of Sovereign Wealth Funds provides a comprehensive, detailed analysis of these funds from a multidimensional perspective consisting of 33 chapters divided into seven sections. Section I provides background material about SWFs, providing a foundation for the remainder of the handbook. Section II examines various controversies, governance, and accountability topics involving SWFs. Section III discusses the political, legal, and tax aspects of SWFs. Section IV reviews numerous topics involving SWF management. Section V deals with SWFs' policies, preferences, and performance. Section VI provides descriptive analyses of SWFs based on country or region. It also offers a comparison of SWF similarities and differences across countries. Section VII concludes by examining special issues and the future of SWFs. This handbook spans the gamut from theoretical to practical while offering the right balance of detailed and user-friendly coverage. Discussion of relevant research permeates the handbook. Although other books are available on SWFs, few are as comprehensive or provide a multidimensional perspective from academics and practitioners. This handbook fills a gap by showing how SWFs are a growing and dynamic force in international finance.

Economic activity is recovering as rains resumed in 2023, and the authorities continue to advance their efforts to rebuild the economy and institutions. However, despite significant progress achieved, Somalia remains fragile, facing challenges from climate shocks, an unsettled security situation as the government advances against Al-Shabab amid the withdrawal of the African Union Transition Mission, and lack of political consensus among all Federal Member States that affects advancement of the federalism agenda.

Guinea-Bissau is a fragile state with significant development challenges, including limited fiscal space, debt vulnerabilities and poor governance. After years of political turmoil and delayed reforms, in 2021 the authorities started the implementation of an ambitious fiscal consolidation program to ensure debt sustainability while creating fiscal space to address developmental needs. A Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) disbursement of SDR 14.2 million (50 percent of quota) was approved in January 2021 to provide urgent financing to support critical spending in health. A nine-month SMP with three quarterly reviews, approved in July 2021 ended with satisfactory performance building track record of policy implementation towards an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement. The August 2021 SDR 27.2 million allocation and the reforms underpinned by the SMP have helped address the adverse impact of the pandemic, while improving the transparency of government spending, and mitigating debt vulnerabilities.

The euro area economy has shown resilience in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the largest terms of trade loss in several decades, reflecting strong policy efforts to secure gas supplies and cushion disposable incomes. Nonetheless, activity has weakened, with the economy slipping into a mild technical recession in early 2023, and inflation is far above target. While headline inflation has started to decline with the easing of supply bottlenecks and energy prices, core inflation is proving more persistent. Euro area banks are well capitalized and liquid overall, but the rapid tightening of monetary policy after a prolonged period of accommodation can expose pockets of weakness in the financial system, including in the nonbank sector.