Honduras remains one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the Western Hemisphere. Structural exposure to external shocks and natural hazards go hand in hand with high levels of crime, political instability, and a weak institutional and business environment. These problems have undermined...

The World Bank is supporting Can Tho City (CCT) of Vietnam to conduct an analysis of its current public financial management (PFM) arrangements and national legal framework in comparison to good international practices. The main objective of this activity is to inform the design and...

To face a debt crisis, countries often implement variousforms of fiscal consolidation policies aiming at addressingfiscal imbalances. This paper investigates how debt andfiscal consolidation could influence government expenditureon education. It shows that increased external debt isassociated...

Having implemented a substantial fiscal response to COVID-19, Thailand's government now faces the medium-term challenge of reducing elevated deficit and debt levels, and the structural challenge of meeting rising spending needs, including those associated with an aging population, while...

This second public expenditure review (PER) examines the effectiveness of government spending in Uzbekistan, with a particular focus on education, health, social protection, and water resources management. Fiscal policy and transparency reforms implemented recently in Uzbekistan have supported...

This work builds on the Public Expenditure Review (PER) analysis of the pension system conducted in 2016 but also brings important innovations. It updates the financial analysis conducted then and offers new policy recommendations, with the key objective of improving the affordability of the...

Kosovo has gained a creditable reputation for prudent macro-fiscal management; yet necessary structural reforms and related fiscal pressures lie ahead. The country's track record includes consistently high output growth rates, prudent fiscal deficits supported by fiscal rules, and one of the...