Technical Assistance To The Lao People S Democratic Republic For Institutional Strengthening For Poverty Monitoring And Evaluation

Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) showed commendable growth owing to its strong macroeconomic performance and structural reforms under the economic program. Executive Directors commended the fiscal performance, bank restructuring, and the private sector developments, and stressed the need to strengthen monetary and exchange rate policies. They welcomed the poverty reduction strategy and emphasized the need to accelerate structural reforms. They agreed that Lao PDR successfully completed the third review under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), and approved a waiver and an extension of the PRGF arrangement.

This paper assesses Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s First Review Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), and a Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria. Performance in the first year of the PRGF arrangement has been generally satisfactory. Fiscal slippages through September 2001, owing to weaknesses in the early implementation of the decentralization initiative, were corrected in the December quarter, thus bringing the fiscal program back on track. For 2001/02, the program aims at GDP growth of at least 5 percent, and inflation at about 6 percent by year-end.