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Asia and Pacific > Korea, Republic of

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Cover IMF How To Notes
How to Prepare a Gender Budget Statement
Magdalena Tomczynska-Smith
,
Gemma Preston
,
Virginia Alonso-Albarran
,
Laura A Gores
,
Teresa R Curristine
, and
Chloe Cho
Gender budgeting integrates a gender perspective into the budget process by promoting gender equality through both fiscal policies and public financial management (PFM) tools. A key PFM tool specific to gender budgeting is the Gender Budget Statement. Governments prepare Gender Budget Statements as a transparency and accountability document to communicate how the budget aims to improve gender equality. Gender Budget Statements must be accessible to a broad audience and present information that is succinct and easily understood. Typically, these statements are summary documents that bring together a government’s commitments, goals, priorities, plans, and strategies for addressing identified gaps in gender equality. They are prepared as part of the budget process, highlighting the programs and policies that have been designed to advance gender equality, along with the resources allocated. They are presented to the legislature with the budget documentation to support parliamentary scrutiny and debate. This note provides guidance on how to prepare a Gender Budget Statement. It covers the content that a typical statement should include, suggests steps for developing a statement, highlights the benefit of a staged approach to implementation and includes illustrative country examples.
Keywords:
gender budgeting; public financial management; fiscal transparency; gender equality; budget document; gender impact assessment; gender budget tagging; gender inequality; women; budget planning and preparation; gender diversity; Caribbean; Middle East and Central Asia; South America; Central America; Middle East; Africa; Asia and Pacific; Central Asia; how-to note; budget annex; annex to the budget bill; IMF how-to; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Diagnosis of Decreasing Labor Force Participation in Hong Kong SAR
Ceara Hui
,
Narayanan Raman
,
Hamid R Tabarraei
,
Stella Tam
,
Zhang Wu
,
Yizhi Xu
, and
Ruihua Yang
Hong Kong SAR is facing a sustained decline in labor force participation rate (LFPR), which accelerated in recent years, driven mainly by population aging and further exacerbated by a drop in participation among youth. While the decline in youth LFPR was partly attributable to the mechanical effect of rising share of non-local students in Hong Kong SAR, it also points to postponed labor market entry among the youth which largely reflects continued education. The underlying motivations may suggest shifting job market landscape and labor skill requirements amid structural sectoral shifts, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and more intense labor market competition with increasing labor force educational attainment.
Keywords:
Hong Kong SAR; Labor force participation; Population aging; Youth employment; Artificial intelligence; Educational attainment; issues paper; IMF country; IMF staff; Yizhi xu; Labor force; Labor markets; Asia and Pacific; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Hong Kong SAR: Diversifying and Broadening Revenue
Dan Devlin
and
Yizhi Xu
Hong Kong SAR has faced persistent fiscal pressures amid declining fiscal revenue associated with changes in land use (land premiums), reduced stock market initial public offerings, headwinds to corporate profits, and weakness in the labor market. While recent revenue measures have provided partial relief, medium- to long-term pressures from population aging, rising social and healthcare spending, pensions, and large-scale public investment are expected to intensify. Maintaining strong fiscal buffers remains critical for monetary and financial stability. This paper examines options to strengthen revenue mobilization and broaden the tax base to support fiscal sustainability and long-term resilience.
Keywords:
Hong Kong SAR; Fiscal Policy; Revenue Mobilization; Tax Policy; IMF country; issues paper; IMF staff; Hong Kong SAR Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau; broadening revenue; Personal income tax; Consumption; Income; Value-added tax; Global; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
People's Republic of China-Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
and
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
This Selected Issues paper focuses on diagnosis of decreasing labor force participation rate (LFPR) in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Cohort-based shift-share decompositions indicate that both the decline in youth LFPR and population aging—the rising weight of older cohorts with structurally low LFPR—have materially contributed to the decline in aggregate labor force participation. Household survey indicates that education is the predominant reason for delayed labor-force entry among youth. This finding is consistent with shifts in sectoral composition toward higher skill activities, the emergence of AI, and intensifying labor-market competition, which together raise the perceived returns to additional qualifications and skills upgrading. Although the continued pursuit of further education has lowered youth labor supply, it can enhance human capital formation, strengthening long-term productivity and potential growth. Policies should promote longer and healthier working lives through incentives to raise effective retirement ages, flexible and phased retirement options, targeted mid-career reskilling, and expansion of the capacity of overall elderly care services and childcare infrastructure as appropriate to help relieve the stress of their family carers, thus easing participation constraints. Policy priorities should focus on accelerating acquisitions of AI-complementary skills, strengthening occupational mobility, and reinforcing social protection systems to support workers during transition periods.
Keywords:
staff team; labor market; youth labor force participation; impact of reform; IMF country; revenue impact; Labor force; Labor markets; Labor force participation; Personal income tax; Consumption; Global; Asia and Pacific
Cover Technical Assistance Reports
Republic of Azerbaijan: Technical Assistance Report-Enhancing Economic Analysis and Forecasting Capacity of the Ministry of Economy
International Monetary Fund. Institute for Capacity Development
This technical assistance project, delivered by CCAMTAC and the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development, supported Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Economy in strengthening macroeconomic analysis and forecasting. The initiative developed and operationalized the Comprehensive Adaptive Expectations Model (CAEM), which was integrated into the Ministry’s forecasting system and has been in use since the Budget 2026. Through targeted training, enhanced analytical frameworks, and improved data infrastructure, the project advanced institutional capacity for credible policy analysis and scenario planning. The CAEM now supports robust, internally consistent medium-term forecasts, supporting Azerbaijan’s economic framework and policy formulation.
Keywords:
Azerbaijan; Macroeconomic frameworks; Comprehensive adaptive expectations model.; Imf publication; Imf Caucasus; MOE team; Imf country; Imf to International Monetary Fund; Mongolia Capacity Development Center; Macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts; Consumer price indexes; Middle East; Central Asia; Global
Cover High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Reports
Republic of Kyrgyzstan: Review of Quarterly Projection Model of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic
Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations
This technical assistance report summarizes the findings and recommendations from two missions conducted by the International Monetary Fund to the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR) in 2023. The missions aimed to assess and enhance the forecasting performance of the central bank’s core macroeconomic projection tool, which supports its inflation-targeting monetary policy framework. The tool was found to be broadly adequate, with recalibration yielding marginal improvements in forecast accuracy. A new forecast quality monitoring tool was developed and integrated into the forecasting system to track forecast errors and provide early warnings. Key recommendations include investment in continuous human resource development and in the retention of expertise.
Keywords:
National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic; macroeconomic forecasting; central projection tool; inflation-targeting monetary policy framework; forecasting performance; Imf publication; staff forecast; technical assistance report; Monetary policy frameworks; Human capital; Inflation targeting; Job training; Macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts; Inflation
Cover Policy Papers
Extension of the Period for Consent to Increase Quotas under the Sixteenth General Review of Quotas and to the NAB Rollback
International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
On May 8, 2026, the IMF’s Executive Board approved another six-month extension of the period to consent to the quota increase and to the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) rollback under the Sixteenth General Review of Quotas (GRQ), through November 15, 2026. Such extension also extends the period of consent for quota increases under the Fourteenth GRQ. The previous deadline was due to expire on May 15, 2026. However, the Board of Governors Resolution No. 79-1 provides that the Executive Board may extend the period for consent as it may determine.
Keywords:
General Review of Quotas; Payment for quota; Quota increases; Quotas; Reform of quota; Consent to the increase; Credit arrangement; New Arrangements to Borrow; NAB rollback; IMF staff; transparency Policy; IMF policy; Credit; Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Capital Holdup, Job Creation, and Skill Supply under Search Frictions
Shisham Adhikari
and
Si Guo
There has been renewed interest in revitalizing manufacturing, yet policy often confronts a circular challenge: firms hesitate to expand because they cannot reliably find suitably skilled workers (e.g., STEM-trained), while workers are reluctant to acquire those skills when jobs remain limited. This raises a policy question: intervene at the firm margin or the worker margin, or both? We study this question by extending Acemoglu and Shimer (1999) to a two-sector open-economy. The key friction is capital holdup: firms invest upfront to create jobs, but sunk investment weakens their wage bargaining positions, discouraging investment ex-ante. Because manufacturing is more capital intensive, holdup is more severe, leaving manufacturing employment inefficiently low. In the calibrated model, this inefficiency-induced industrial employment shortfall is about 1 percent of total employment – roughly one-fifth of LAC-East Asia gap. When Hosios condition holds, the optimal policy can be solely on the firm side: an investment subsidy financed by an employment tax on firms. When Hosios condition fails, an additional wedge distorting workers’ sectoral choices emerges, and targeted training subsidies become welfare-improving.
Keywords:
Search and matching; employment; IMF working papers; policy question; capital holdup; investment subsidy; Hosios condition; Labor markets; Manufacturing; Unemployment; East Asia; Asia and Pacific; employment share; open economy; sectoral choice; lump sum; STEM share; Job creation; Labor market frictions; South America; Central America; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Trade Policy Shocks and Corporate Valuations - Disentangling Trade and Uncertainty Channels
Robert C. M. Beyer
,
Hui Tong
, and
Xinbei Zhou
This paper investigates how the 2025 U.S. trade-policy shocks propagated to global equity valuations. Country-level studies have documented the aggregate costs of tariffs and uncertainty, but firm-level evidence on their joint role after the 2025 shocks remains limited. Filling this gap, we use a firm-level event-study design to disentangle a trade-exposure channel from a sensitivity-to-uncertainty channel. Firms with greater U.S. trade exposure and higher uncertainty sensitivity experienced the sharpest valuation declines following the initial tariff announcement on April 2, but also the strongest rebounds after the announced pause and subsequent trade agreements. Both channels are economically meaningful and of similar magnitude, and jointly account for a substantial share of the market response. Together, they represent about 20 percent of the stock-price decline among tradable firms after April 2 and about 10 percent of the rebound after trade agreements. Overall, the findings show that trade policy affects firms not only through expected tariff costs, but also by reshaping policy predictability in ways that affect firms’ investment incentives.
Keywords:
tariffs; trade exposure; uncertainty; corporate market valuations; IMF working papers; uncertainty channel; event-study design; trade policy shock; investment incentive; Trade policy; Trade agreements; Exports; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Institutions for Industrial Policy: The Foundation of Economic Development
Reda Cherif
,
Fuad Hasanov
, and
Gary Xie
We propose an institutional architecture for the successful implementation of industrial policy inspired by the Asian Miracles—Japan, Korea, Taiwan Province of China, Singapore, and Hong Kong SAR. The key institutional arrangement is a leading agency, accumulating sector-specific knowledge through continuous experimentation and feedback from markets, to design the sector- and context-appropriate package of policies, which is a priori unknown, and coordinate its implementation. We also postulate a 4A model of institutional features of the leading agency: Ambition-Agency, Autonomy, Accountability, and Adaptability. We draw strong parallels with the rise of independent central banks, inferring concrete steps to achieve these characteristics.
Keywords:
Industrial Policy; Technology and Innovation Policy; Economic Growth; Institutions for Development; Planning Agencies; Asian Tigers.; central bank; executive branch; Federal Reserve; leading agency; economic policy; public goods; prime minister; Exports; Automobile industry; Export performance; Global; East Asia