Breaking its longstanding practice, Brazil in 2012 agreed to the publication of the annual “Article IV” report on its economy by the International Monetary Fund.
Brazil has been a hold-out among major economies by continuing to deny permission for the release of the full report. The IMF publishes a “Public Information Notice” about all the Article IV reports, which summarize any comments from the discussion of the report by IMF Executive Board. The staff-written evaluations, which are discussed with country governments, are usually done annually.
IMF disclosure policy allows governments to block release of the staff report, which is done about 10 percent of the time. Sensitive information may be deleted., too.
For many years, Brazil was a giant on the list of mostly small countries that don’t allow publication.
That changed only last July when Brazil acceded to publication of the report. (See IMF PIN, with link to staff report.) Requests for comment by the Brazilian Executive Director were not answered.
According to a July 16, 2012, an annual report, the countries that did not allow Article IV report disclosures in 2011 were: Antigua and Barbuda, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Turkmenistan, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Libya, Myanmar and Oman.
Saudia Arabia, which had been a fixture on the no disclosure list, allowed release of the Article IV report in 2011.
The IMF recently announced plans to review its 2009 transparency policy.
The IMF on Feb. 21 posted a call for comments along with eleven specific questions. The deadline is March 29. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
Filed under: IFTI Watch