Description

This paper reviews the emerging market programs put in place in response to the current financial crisis. (A forthcoming paper will review the recent experience in low-income countries.) The report covers 15 Stand-By Arrangements (SBAs) approved by the IMF between September 2008 and early July 2009. The programs are concentrated in Europe and the CIS region (Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine). Other cases covered are Pakistan, Mongolia, and the precautionary (i.e., nondisbursing) SBAs with Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Because the focus here is on the policies pursued under Fund-supported programs, the three countries (Mexico, Poland, and Colombia) that have access to Fund resources under the new Flexible Credit Line (FCL), which does not involve an economic program monitored by the Fund, are not the focus of this paper.