This technical assistance report on the Republic of Armenia discusses personal tax policy and presents the policy review and introduction of a universal declaration. Costly and regressive tax incentives should be repealed. A Universal Personal Income Tax (PIT) Declaration makes it possible to...

This Technical Assistance report presents an evaluation of improved Green Tax Options for Chile. Consistent with its emission reduction ambitions, Chile has developed multiple climate policies. While Chile has made important progress to align policies with climate commitments, additional...

This Technical Assistance report identifies tax policy reform options to stop the drain on Lebanon's tax revenue in the immediate and near terms and to move toward a more efficient, effective, and inclusive tax system in the medium term. Lebanon entered the economic crisis already with one of...

This 2007 Article IV Consultation highlights that Bulgaria’s large external imbalance has continued to widen. Driven by massive capital inflows, particularly foreign direct investment inflows, the current account deficit could reach a record level of 20 percent of GDP in 2007. Although...

The current account deficit in Bulgaria, which doubled in 2005 to 11.8 percent of GDP, deteriorated further to 14.6 percent of GDP during the first four months of 2006. The current account deficit continues to be substantially financed by foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Fiscal policy has...

This paper discusses Serbia and Montenegro’s Sixth Review Under the Extended Arrangement, Financing Assurances Review, Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria, and Proposed Post-Program Monitoring. Program implementation since the fifth review has been mixed, delaying...

Barbados' economy continued to grow, but macroeconomic imbalances worsened. Executive Directors observed that the imbalances are owed to a procyclical fiscal stance, and advised to tighten monetary policy and safeguard the fixed exchange rate regime as an anchor of macroeconomic stability. They...

This Selected Issues paper discusses fiscal sustainability and capital expenditures for Equatorial Guinea. The paper formulates a permanent income hypothesis model and estimates it using data on oil revenues from Equatorial Guinea. The first methodology is based on a standard permanent income...

This paper discusses key findings of the Fourth Review Under the Stand-By Arrangement for Bulgaria. Performance in 2006 was broadly satisfactory, although structural reform implementation was weaker than expected. Notably, the government postponed until mid-2007 the launching of the electronic...

This Selected Issues paper on Luxembourg reports that exemplary high growth rates and prudent fiscal policies provided the financial basis for the welfare system. Social expenditures in per capita terms, even adjusted for the large number of cross-border workers, rank highest among European...