International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department, International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept., and International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
The Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) provides affordable longer-term financing to help eligible IMF members address longer-term structural challenges, thereby progressing toward strengthening their prospective balance of payments stability. This paper takes stock of the initial experience with the RST—focusing on progress and challenges so far—and proposes fine-tuning RST design with a view to strengthening implementation of the Trust’s objectives. The paper also provides an assessment of the adequacy of the Trust’s resources and finds that increased near-term fundraising will be needed to meet strong demand. The Trust’s reserves remain adequate in the baseline and under a range of risk scenarios.
Nordine Abidi, Mehdi El Herradi, Boriana Yontcheva, and Ananta Dua
This paper investigates the effects of climate shocks on inflation and monetary policy in the Middle East and Central Asia (ME&CA) region. We first introduce a theoretical model to understand the impact of climate risks on headline and food inflation. In particular, the model shows how climate shocks could affect the path of policy rates through food prices. We then use local projections to estimate the impact of climate shocks on headline and food inflation. The results show that price stability is more easily achievable under positive climate conditions. Overall, our findings shed new light on the importance of considering climate-related supply shocks when designing monetary policy, particularly in countries where food makes up a significant part of the CPI-basket.