Preliminary Considerations Of Options To Address Excessive Delays In The Completion Of Article Iv Consultations

This paper aims to engage Directors on how best to promote timely completion of Article IV consultations. Surveillance is mandatory for both the Fund and its members, and members have an obligation to consult with the Fund for this purpose. In this context, it is useful to consider if further steps are warranted to address cases in which members do not consult with the Fund on a timely basis. This paper does not propose Board decisions at this stage. Instead it lays out ideas to elicit Directors’ views. Based on this informal discussion, staff could return later to the Board, if needed for a formal discussion and possible decisions.

This paper aims to engage Directors on how best to promote timely completion of Article IV consultations. Surveillance is mandatory for both the Fund and its members, and members have an obligation to consult with the Fund for this purpose. In this context, it is useful to consider if further steps are warranted to address cases in which members do not consult with the Fund on a timely basis. This paper does not propose Board decisions at this stage. Instead it lays out ideas to elicit Directors' views. Based on this informal discussion, staff could return later to the Board, if needed for a formal discussion and possible decisions.

Bilateral surveillance is mandatory for both the Fund and its members, and all members have an obligation to consult with the Fund for this purpose.3 Periodic consultations with members on their policies and access to necessary information are essential for effective bilateral surveillance. Furthermore, to enable the Fund to effectively conduct multilateral surveillance, bilateral surveillance needs to cover all economies at a reasonable frequency.

The WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism, which reviews the trade policies and practices of each WTO member at regular intervals, is generally considered to function well. In this day and age, complacency is unwise. Examining trade policy reviews throughout the lifetime of the TPRM, this book details its evolution from Article X of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the proposed modifications resulting from the mechanism's latest appraisal, examining the budgetary capabilities and technical performance of all the main entities who participate in the reviews. On the basis of these considerations, the author concludes that in order to remain relevant, especially in times of increased global protectionism, the TPRM could, and should do better, and provides unique and timely suggestions for reform.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

International cooperation, economic and financial integration, and technological progress have delivered enormous benefits across the globe during the past decades. Yet, in many countries, these benefits have not been shared adequately to prevent eroding trust in institutions and weakening support for the global system that has made these gains possible.

This 2018 Article IV Consultation highlights that the headline inflation in Hungary has started to pick up, mainly owing to higher energy prices, while core inflation has been running sideways over the past six months, despite emerging capacity constraints. Unemployment remains on a decreasing trend, and labor shortages are intensifying despite the improvement in participation rates. The 2017 general government fiscal deficit narrowed to 2 percent of GDP, compared with the budgeted 2.4 percent. This outcome was mostly driven by strong GDP growth and reduced interest payments. The IMF staff projects the 2018 overall fiscal deficit at about 2.4 percent of GDP, in line with the budget’s target.

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

The pandemic is inflicting much suffering, which has been met with swift, substantial, and well-coordinated policy responses. The anti-crisis measures have helped preserve jobs, provide liquidity to companies and income support to the vulnerable groups. They averted a larger decline in output and kept unemployment under control. After contracting by 5.5 percent in 2020, real GDP is projected to grow by 3.9 percent in 2021 and 4.5 percent in 2022, as vaccinations help achieve herd immunity. However, risks to the outlook are large and tilted to the downside, given the epidemiological situation.