[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 202 (Wednesday, October 20, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Page 64748]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-26399]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION

[MCC FR 10-13]


Amendment to the Report on the Selection of Eligible Countries 
for Fiscal Year 2011

AGENCY: Millennium Challenge Corporation.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice amends the previously published report entitled 
``Report on the Criteria and Methodology for Determining the 
Eligibility of Candidate countries for Millennium Challenge Account 
Assistance for Fiscal Year 2011,'' which appeared October 4, 2010 in 
the Federal Register (Volume 75, Number 191, pages 61216-61219).

Background

    MCC relies on information from the International Monetary Fund 
(IMF) for its Fiscal Policy indicator. The amendment to the reference 
report is to adjust for the IMF's decision this year to replace one 
data series with another of slightly different technical 
specifications. IMF made this replacement data public on October 6, 
2010 and subsequent to our earlier Federal Register notice.
    In previous years, the data MCC used for this measure had come 
primarily from publicly available IMF country reports or, where public 
IMF data were outdated or unavailable, were provided directly by 
candidate country governments with input from U.S. missions in host 
countries. All data were cross-checked with the series General 
Government Balance (or Central Government Balance) as a percent of 
gross domestic product (GDP) from the IMF's World Economic Outlook 
database to try to ensure consistency across countries. However, 
beginning with the 2010 World Economic Outlook database, the IMF 
replaced the General Government Balance series with the Net Lending/
Borrowing series.
    Whereas General Government Balance was calculated as revenue minus 
expenditure and net lending operations, Net Lending/Borrowing is 
calculated simply as revenue minus total expenditure. It is similar to 
General Government Balance, but is believed to be an improved measure; 
its adoption is part of an IMF migration to a more rigorous, 
transparent, and comprehensive framework for recording government 
finance statistics. The Net Lending/Borrowing series is also publicly 
available for 182 countries as part of the World Economic Outlook 
database. Consequently, the substitution of the Net Lending/Borrowing 
series makes MCC's use of this indicator even more transparent.

Amendment

    The description of the Fiscal Policy indicator appearing on page 
61218 is amended to read:
    Fiscal Policy: General government net lending/borrowing as a 
percent of GDP, averaged over a three-year period. Net lending/
borrowing is calculated as revenue minus total expenditure. Source: 
International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook Database.
    The previously published language under the heading Fiscal Policy 
is stricken.

    Dated: October 15, 2010.
Melvin F. Williams, Jr.,
VP/General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Millennium Challenge 
Corporation.
[FR Doc. 2010-26399 Filed 10-15-10; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 9211-03-P