Long-term Issues for Fiscal Sustainability in Emerging Asia

The aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007–08 underlined the importance of maintaining fiscal space and fiscal sustainability. Even though many Asian economies implemented fiscal stimulus policies during the crisis period, their fiscal conditions generally improved rapidly thereafter, and their overall government debt positions, aside from that of Japan, appear strong. Nonetheless, there are a number of reasons to believe that conditions in emerging Asian economies will not always be so supportive. The first objective of this paper is to identify long-term issues of fiscal sustainability risk for emerging Asian economies. The second objective is to recommend policies to reduce these risks to sustainability.