This report assesses the role of fiscal rules for countercyclical economic management in Kazakhstan and simulates the behavior of different types of fiscal rules. The work represents technical assistance to the ministry of economy and budget planning and has been financed by the joint economic...

Armenia has a very small economy that has carried out strong reforms in many areas over the past decade and a half. It grew at a very fast pace prior to the global crisis (about 12 percent on average between 2000 and 2007), in part due to a strong inflow of remittances and Foreign Direct...

This paper provides background to the Board paper on Macro Policy Lessons for a Sound Design of Fiscal Decentralization. It summarizes the findings and recommendations of the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) for ten countries to which it provided advice on fiscal decentralization. The selected...

Fiscal decentralization has been, and remains high on the policy agenda of many countries. It is mainly driven by political pressures, which tend to be especially evident in countries with multiple ethnicities, and/or wide regional disparities in incomes or resource endowments. More generally,...

Many countries have initiated reforms in their monetary control procedures by relaxing direct controls and increasing the role of market processes. The changed approach is often inevitable when countries reform their financial systems in support of growth and adjustment. This is because reform...

For the time being—and possibly for a considerable time to come—developments and prospects for the euro area are quite favorable. This upbeat outlook is underpinned by buoyant activity indicators and a supportive policy mix. High household and business confidence, rising capacity utilization...

This report discusses Mongolia's increasing dependence on mining revenues and the associated vulnerability to boom and bust economic cycles, and calls for special attention to governance in mining resource management. It seeks to identify can be learned from the experiences of other mineral...

How should possible policy reforms and projects be assessed when prices give misleading signals? Revenues and costs at market prices then give distorted measures of social gains and losses and our appraisal should use social opportunity costs, or correctly defined, shadow prices. We show how...