This report assesses the Observance of Standards and Codes on Fiscal Transparency for the Republic of Kazakhstan. The fiscal reporting and dissemination of information in Kazakhstan has already achieved a sound level of practice, and can be built upon with relatively little further effort....

This Joint Staff Advisory Note reviews the National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) 2006–10 and the Annual Progress Report for Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). The government of PDR approved the Sixth NSEDP 2006–10 (PRSP) in June 2006. The NSEDP provides a...

The report on the Netherlands on the Observance of Standards and Codes discusses the fiscal transparency module and the Aide-Mémoire regarding the fiscal framework. The roles and responsibilities of and within government are, in general, clearly defined and, in many areas, the Netherlands sets...

This 2013 Article IV Consultation highlights that recent macroeconomic developments in The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia are encouraging, with a significant deceleration in inflation and continued robust economic growth. Despite significant decline in coffee prices and supply...

Economic growth has been robust under favorable conditions in Gabon, but has not been inclusive enough, leaving one-third of its population in poverty. Building larger fiscal buffers, backed by a more prudent fiscal stance, will be critical to withstand possible negative oil price shocks....

Tanzania’s fiscal policy has been tightened owing to the deteriorating financing climate and rising inflation. The Bank of Tanzania has tightened its reserve money program for 2011/12, and domestic interest rates have risen sharply since mid-2011. The authorities are expanding...

This paper focuses on post-crisis fiscal priorities in the ASEAN-5 economies - Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Sound economic fundamentals and timely and forceful policy responses to the crisis, including fiscal stimulus, contributed to rapid economic recovery in the...

Fiscal Responsibility Laws (FRLs) appear to be more popular in middle-income countries than advanced countries, even though their success is limited. The reasons why few advanced countries have a FRL include: the existing legal framework for the budget system is adequate; supranational rules and...

This paper examines the channels through which external debt affects growth in low-income countries. Our results suggest that the substantial reduction in the stock of external debt projected for highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) would directly increase per capita income growth by about 1...

Do fiscal rules likely lead to fiscal adjustment, or do they encourage the use of ‘creative accounting’? This question is studied with a model in which fiscal rules are imposed on ‘measured’ fiscal variables, which can differ from ‘true’ variables because there is a margin for...