IMF | CCAMTAC

National Workshop on Financial Programming and Policies (November 6 – 10, 2023).
A national face-to-face workshop was delivered by CCAMTAC staff, using Institute’s for Capacity Development (ICD) barebones financial programming and policies (FPP) template. The workshop was the first in-person CD activity in Turkmenistan after the COVID-19 pandemic. During a one-week workshop, 22 participants from the Central Bank of Turkmenistan, the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the State Statistics Committee, and other entities learned to project economic variables, comprehensively assess a baseline scenario, and identify internal and external 

Monetary Policy Implementation Scoping Mission (August 29– September 4, 2024). The CCAMTAC mission visited the Central Bank of Turkmenistan (CBT) to discuss areas for future cooperation on monetary and FX policy issues. The scoping mission identified areas and prepared the roadmap of possible TA engagement over the next several years on monetary and FX policy implementation issues. The mission highlighted the importance of maintaining a modern monetary policy implementation framework, including the CBT’s mandate, modernization of the operational framework, central bank communication and transparency, enhancement of monetary policy tools instruments, and liquidity forecasting.

Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations (January 15 - April 30, 2021)

The missions reviewed past TA, assessed TA needs and will provide the future CCAMTAC resident advisor on central banking with a preliminary work plan tailored to each country’s needs. At the same time, several cross-cutting themes emerged. Most countries are transitioning to or plan to transition to inflation targeting. Common monetary policy and operations issues relate to high dollarization, foreign exchange intervention policy, the impact of remittances and their volatility on monetary policy, the role of the ruble exchange rate, and the state of correspondent banking. The assessments were shared with the respective country authorities to help inform their capacity development plans.

National Accounts (September 6 - 10, 2021)

During the mission, the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan was assisted in populating the GDP Forecasting Template with relevant data and developing a medium-term strategy for the improvement of official monthly flash estimates.

Medium Term and Program Budgeting (May 27–31, 2024). This was the first PFM mission to Turkmenistan for several years and served primarily as a scoping mission to train a team of budget officers in the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE) on medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) and program–based budgeting (PBB) practices and to support the development of a reform action plan. Mission outputs included: (i) a full set of training materials with key concepts and country examples; (ii) a worked example to develop a program structure based on the Ministry of Finance structure, and; (iii) a reform roadmap to be customized and endorsed by senior management. The mission was undertaken concurrently with a GFS mission improve technical aspect of government finance reporting (pictured).

GFS/ PSDS mission (May 27–31, 2024). The team followed up on the work conducted by the TA mission of March 4–8, 2024. The main objectives of the mission were: i) expanding fiscal data transmitted to the IMF – MCD (Middle East and Central Asia Department); ii) delivering a hands–on training on “above the line” and “below the line” transactions in GFS; iii) illustrating linkages between Public Financial management (PFM) and GFS, and iv) discussing design of future TA. The mission also discussed with the authorities delimitation of the public and general government sector in line with the international statistical standards. The GFS mission overlapped with the mission of the CCAMTAC Public Finance Management resident advisor on medium term budgeting. This allowed for joint sessions on budget reporting of government units.

GFS/ PSDS mission (March 4–8, 2024). This mission was the first GFS and Public Sector Debt Statistics (PSDS) TA mission conducted since 2018 and the very first in-person bilateral TA mission since existence of CCAMTAC. The team met with officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE), the Central Bank of Turkmenistan (CBT), and the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan (SSCT). The mission reviewed data sources for the compilation of fiscal statistics and provided several hands-on trainings to the staff of MFE, CBT and SSCT. The authorities have been carrying out the ambitious budgetary reform, part of which is the revision of the budget framework aligned with the GFS Manual 2014, and adoption of the national accounting standards and Chart of Accounts based on the International Financial Reporting Standards. The mission and the authorities discussed how this reform can be helpful for the compilation of the sound fiscal statistics.

Audit program training and CD Scoping activity (October 21–25, 2024). The CCAMTAC team delivered a successful five-day VITARA-based audit training for senior officials and staff of the Turkmenistan Ministry of Finance and Economy in Ashgabat. A meeting was held with the Deputy Head of the Tax Administration, where FAD CD services were presented, and possible CD activities discussed. During the mission, the team gained good insights into the Turkmenistan Tax Administration, its structure and processes as well as the Turkmenistan Tax Code.

Financial Regulation and Supervision Scoping Mission (August 29– September 4, 2024). This mission conducted in person in Ashgabat aimed at setting-up a roadmap of technical assistance (TA) in financial regulation and supervision (FR). The mission identified a number of possible TA opportunities that fall within the umbrella of risk-based supervisory methods and regulatory enhancements, including the rollout of Basel-compliant capital and liquidity requirements, adoption of international financial reporting standards, enhancing the stress testing methodologies, and developing a credit bureau development.