Hungary's government has made great progress toward revealing the true fiscal cost of its budgetary and off-budget programs, containing the financial risks of its policies, and improving the management of public expenditures and contingent liabilities. Although far from complete, fiscal...

Governments' contingent liabilities increase fiscal vulnerability, but are omitted in traditional measures of the current deficit. In the Czech Republic this omission may mean that fiscal adjustment has been overstated by 3 to 4 percent of annual GDP, with future budgets having to pay for past...

The exchange rate regime does make a difference for inflation performance. It is difficult to infer its effect on growth, but policy variables, and other variables influencing economic activity, do have different effects on growth under different exchange-rate arrangements