Balance of Payments Statistics No 2022/001

Country Report No. 2023/098

Country Report No. 2023/099

Growth is expected to slow from 3.0 percent in 2022 to 0.2 percent in 2023, before returning to potential of 1.2 percent over the medium term. Inflation should decelerate from 10.3 percent in 2022 to 5.5 percent in 2023, as energy prices ease. Indexation has opened a wage gap with key trading partners, posing challenges for competitiveness. With aging and social-benefit pressures and in the absence of adjustment measures, the structural fiscal deficit is expected to remain elevated over the medium term at 5½ percent of GDP and high public debt will also rise to about 120 percent of GDP in 2028, increasing vulnerabilities. Risks are tilted to the downside, related to escalation of the war in Ukraine and a sharper-than-expected tightening of financial conditions. Lower energy prices would reduce fiscal pressures, and with progress on structural reforms before elections in 2024, boost confidence.

Since the last Article IV consultation in 2019, the Malagasy authorities have implemented several key policy recommendations, but ambitious reforms remain hampered by limited capacity and weak governance. In a context of lower global growth and high international prices, Madagascar’s growth is projected to stall at 4.2 percent in 2023 while annual average inflation would accelerate above 10 percent. Risks from the domestic political situation, low COVID-vaccination rates and adverse global developments cloud the outlook. On the upside, the implementation of the full reform agenda envisaged in the Plan Emergence Madagascar would have significant effects on productivity and growth.

Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a 24-month arrangement under the Precautionary and liquidity Line (PLL) with access of US$968 million (190 percent of quota), to provide insurance against risks from higher commodity prices, a global slowdown, tighter-than-envisaged global financial conditions, and new COVID outbreaks. The Executive Board also approved an arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) for US$764 million (150 percent of quota) to strengthen physical and fiscal resilience to climate change, advance decarbonization of the economy, and manage transition risks. The RSF is expected to catalyze funding for climate priorities from other official lenders and the private sector.

“São Tomé and Principe’s economic conditions are challenging. Long-standing socio-economic vulnerabilities were further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, persistent energy shortages, the floods at end-2021 and early-2022, and a sharp increase in global food and fuel prices. As a result, 2022 growth slowed to an estimated 0.9 percent, down from an average of about 4 percent in the previous few years. Inflation reached 25.6 percent year-on-year in January 2023. International reserves fell substantially.

The technical assistance (TA) aimed to support the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to develop cost-effective, coordinated policies and investment programs to achieve climate and air quality goals in Beijing City, Tianjin City, Hebei Province, and Shandong Province (four municipalities and provinces) of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region of the PRC.

This report validates the completion report's assessment of the TA.

IED overall assessment is successful.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (1 March 2023) — The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Procurement Policy Framework (PPF) is laying the foundation for the organization to modernize its procurement system and harmonize with those of other multilateral development banks, says an independent evaluation report released recently.

With ADB managing around $9.5 billion in procurement contracts for goods and services every year, the evaluation report reviews PPF implementation and identifies lessons and directions to help ADB in delivering better quality and value for money.

“Procurement plays a big part in development effectiveness and the quality of public procurement practices is a major determinant of effective public spending,” said Independent Evaluation Department Director General Emmanuel Jimenez. “The shift from a rule-based system with emphasis on compliance to a more principles-based approach which introduced quality and value for money as two new core procurement principles is a significant step forward.”

These reforms are still in the early stages of implementation which began in earnest in 2019 only to be delayed by COVID-19. ADB must continue with its promising start and ensure that corporate behavioral change and process improvements remain salient as it takes on the pressing challenges of sustainable and green procurement in the years ahead, the report says.

The report recommends that ADB’s corporate culture and structure be updated to ensure that strategic procurement planning becomes an integrated, holistic practice to improve identification and prudent management of procurement risks.

To successfully deliver quality and value for money, “ADB must better communicate complex procurement concepts to its client countries and among ADB staff, while managing contracts based on criticality, and not their size. This should be supported by sustained investments in long-term country capacity building and in improved procurement data management systems to strengthen transparency and governance,” evaluation team leader Eungji Kim added.

About Independent Evaluation at ADB

ADB's Independent Evaluation, reporting to the Board of Directors through the Development Effectiveness Committee, contributes to development effectiveness by providing feedback on ADB's policies, strategies, operations, and special concerns in Asia and the Pacific.

Today, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) announced their collaboration in the Green and Resilience Debt Platform, a vehicle that aims to boost climate finance in Africa.