This 2018 Article IV Consultation highlights that Mali’s economic recovery continued in 2017 amid persistent security challenges. GDP growth remained robust, at an estimated 5.3 percent supported by good harvests and robust domestic demand. Inflation was subdued, remaining well below the regional ceiling. The 2017 fiscal outturn and the 2018 budget are in line with the program targets and the goal of converging to the West African Economic and Monetary Union’s regional fiscal deficit norm of 3 percent of GDP by 2019.

This handbook provides policymakers and officials with practical guidelines to establish a robust legal framework, organization, and procedures for administering revenue from extractive industries. It discusses transparency and how to promote it in the face of increasing demands for clarity, as well as how countries can strengthen their managerial and technical capacity to administer these revenues.

Nonperforming Loans (NPLs) in the banking system constituted 16.5 percent of total loans, owing primarily to the corporate sector. The Credit Bureau, maintained by the Association of Serbian Banks, also discloses dramatic increases in corporate and retail defaults over the past year. NPL resolution and loan loss mitigation is hampered by a still evolving but uneven collateral and enforcement framework that complicates restructuring and leads to delays and lower recoveries in execution procedures.