THe IMF and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

From their Web site...

The IMF is an international organization of 185 member countries. It was established to

• promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements;
• Foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and
• Provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment. (See Purposes of the IMF in the Articles of Agreement.)

The work of the IMF is of three main types.

• Surveillance involves the monitoring of economic and financial developments, and the provision of policy advice, aimed especially at crisis-prevention.


• The IMF also lends to countries with balance of payments difficulties, to provide temporary financing and to support policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems; loans to low-income countries are also aimed especially at poverty reduction.


• Third, the IMF provides countries with technical assistance and training in its areas of expertise. Supporting all three of these activities is IMF work in economic research and statistics.

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What makes the IMF such a great source for the KOA is their Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

Before a country can request debt relief, it must open its books, and the World Bank and the IMF invest a bunch of money in research, resulting in a report that includes a specific set of Poverty Reduction Goals (PRG) for that country.

They also publish a ton of papers, with great, reliable data.

Go here to see if your country has a PSRP
-Editor

The IMF Country Data Link

DePaul University World Data Sources

The Depaul University Library Maintains a great link list for Economic and country data from all around the the world. Here is a partial listing:

-Editor

Doing Business Description: World Bank provides objective measure of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across more than 130 economies and will soon be comparable over time.

EIU.com Description: Economist Intelligence Unit provides continual updates of economic, financial and risk analysis and forecasts on more than 200 countries and eight key industries; includes trend tracking and operating environments (some free data)

Export.gov Description: A service of the Dept. of Commerce, this site serves individuals and businesses interested in selling to foreign markets.

Global Market Information Description: Historical and forecast market data for consumer products and demographic, economic and marketing statistics for more than 200 countries.Restrictions: DePaul users only

GlobalEDGE Description: Current information on the business climate, news, history, political structure, economic landscape, and relevant statistical data for 197 countries.

Governments on the World Wide Web Description: Parliaments, ministries, offices, law courts, embassies and city councils in 200 countries. Includes links to online encyclopedia entries, travel info and more.

InfoNation Description: Socioeconomic, demographic and environmental information about countries worldwide. From the United Nations.

InfoPlease World Almanac Description: Statistics, country profiles, current events and geographical information.

Library of Congress Country Studies Description: Political, economic, social and cultural information on more than 100 countries. Formerly known as Area Handbooks.

Lonely Planet Country Guides Description: Travel tips for countries world-wide. Includes brief overviews of history, environment and major attractions.

National Publications and Statistical Yearbooks, Current Statistics and Internet Sites
Description: Links to national statistical sites compiled by the UN Statistics Division.

NationMaster.com
Description: Extracts facts and figures from sources such as the CIA Factbook and allows users to generate graphs by category for easy comparison.

Penn World Tables Description: Provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 168 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000.

StatUSA Description: Domestic economic statistics, international trade figures, country commercial guides and marketing reports from federal government agencies ; includes Statistical Abstract of the United States (in PDF). Restrictions: DePaul users only

US Department of State Background Notes Description: Facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies and areas of special sovereignty.

The Entire De Paul World Data Web Site