planned, with a view to reducing the debt burden below 60% of GDP by 2020. Austrian fiscal policies have tended to be pro …-cyclical in upturns, mainly because spending was not adequately kept in check. Stronger fiscal rules and a reform of inter …-governmental fiscal relations could help contain expenditure dynamics. Efficiency-raising reforms in key spending areas such as pensions …

implications of demographic change. Evidence shows that successful fiscal consolidations tend to rely on spending restraint rather …-cyclical fiscal policies. Canadian governments with large deficits should announce deficit targets on the way to fiscal balance and … target reductions in debt-to-GDP ratios, perhaps supported by budget surplus targets. Temporary fiscal stimulus measures …

and debt are at least as important as reducing government deficits and debt. In any case, the effect of higher net …In the wake of the financial crisis there has been renewed focus on the importance of a country’s net external debt … estimation of OECD countries described in Turner and Spinelli (2012) to investigate the effect of external debt and its …

The differential between the interest rate paid to service government debt and the growth rate of the economy is a key … concept in assessing fiscal sustainability. Among OECD economies, this differential was unusually low for much of the last … countries which have debt-to-GDP ratios above a threshold at which there appears to be an effect on sovereign risk premia has …

paper suggest that reinforcing fiscal institutions, price stability, governance quality, political stability and trade and …

private sector balance sheet vulnerabilities. The fiscal stance is broadly appropriate, but compliance with a multi …-year general government spending ceiling would help avoid pro-cyclical loosening in case of revenue surprises and help boost …

. The inflation target needs to be given greater prominence. The fiscal stance remains broadly appropriate but could be …