Timor-Leste weathered the global financial crisis well and experienced healthy economic growth rates. It has made solid progress in strengthening the public financial management systems. The budget document provides comprehensive information; fiscal transparency is high. The Ministry of Finance...

This report focuses on Observance of Standards and Codes on Fiscal Transparency for Turkey. Turkey has continued to make progress toward meeting the requirements of the fiscal transparency code, in particular through a substantial overhaul of the legal system. The adoption of the Public...

This paper discusses the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s Second Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement and Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria and Rephasing of the Program. The 2007 fiscal deficit target increased modestly to 1 percent of GDP. Taxes were cut and budget...

This study was carried out in association with an FAD technical assistance mission on public financial management issues. It focuses on transparency aspects of fiscal management reforms reviewed by that mission as well as implementation of key report on observance of standards and codes...

Timor-Leste is a unitary state and has made significant progress with improving its fiscal transparency. The government has adopted a transparent, fiscally sustainable governance framework for the petroleum sector. Nonetheless, there are still many areas in which Timor-Leste diverges from the...

Mali’s territorial integrity is threatened, questioning its internal capacity to face challenges and especially to ensure the physical safety of goods and individuals. The government is committed to implement all measures to overcome this situation. More specifically, it will increase...

This poverty reduction strategy paper on Nicaragua shows that the main obstacles to poverty reduction are related to culture, historical, and structural factors, as well as weak public policy. The lack of proper physical infrastructure, the weaknesses in the energy matrix, the flaws in the...

In this study, the risks related to the euro area sovereign debt crisis are analyzed. Methods used to implement the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) are overviewed, and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), and the European Supervisory...

Pakistan has implemented some reforms, including improvements in tax administration, removal of some tax exemptions, and the introduction of an interest rate corridor. The macroeconomic policies are overly expansionary and fundamental reforms to resolve the economy’s structural problems...

The staff report for the Fifth and Sixth Reviews Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Arrangement discusses Zambia’s strong macroeconomic performance and budget execution. High copper prices and extensive debt relief helped to strengthen Zambia’s external position and...