Today’s record public debt levels in most advanced economies are not only a direct fall-out from the global crisis. Public debt had ratcheted up over many decades before, when it had been used, in most of the G-7 countries, as the ultimate shock absorber—rising in bad times but not...

This paper examines the incidence of nonresident interest withholding taxes in the international 3-month Treasury-bill market and the international 5-year government bond market.The approach is one of pooled cross-section, time-series regressions.We find that, in general, U.S. dollar yields on...

This paper on the Baltic countries analyzes medium-term fiscal issues related to European Union (EU) and NATO accession. The paper supports the Baltic authorities’ intention to aim at balancing their budgets over the economic cycle. The paper describes the Baltics’ current fiscal...

The staff report for the Sixth Review under the Stand-By Arrangement and Requests for Waiver of Performance Criteria on Bolivia highlights economic developments and preliminary macroeconomic framework. The economy is characterized by a number of vulnerabilities that require policy vigilance....

This Ex Post Assessment of Longer-Term Program Engagement for the Kyrgyz Republic explains macroeconomic and structural performance. External debt service claimed a steadily increasing share of fiscal revenues, but a strengthened commitment to prudent fiscal policies and improved policy capacity...

This paper reviews the Staff-Monitored Program (SMP) for the Union of the Comoros. The authorities’ program for 2005 is focused on macroeconomic stabilization. This is predicated on a consolidated budget entailing a domestic fiscal adjustment slightly above 3 percent of GDP. Monetary...

We look into Brazil's public sector accounts during the two administrations of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso: 1995-98 and 1998-2002. We underline the fact that the authorities' attitude was as important as the pace of the structural reforms for understanding the dynamics of the public...

Fiscal consolidation has become an important policy prescription for many emerging market countries (EMCs), particularly for the highly indebted ones. Although prudent fiscal policies tend to reduce vulnerabilities, their implementation is usually postponed. This paper represents, to the best of...

This paper discusses Bolivia’s Fifth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), Request for Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria (PC), and Rephasing, Augmentation, and Extension of the SBA. The 2004 program was on track. All quantitative PCs were met, with the exception of...