This report provides an assessment of fiscal transparency practices in Hungary in relation to the requirements of the IMF Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency. The report reveals that Hungary has increased its level of transparency in a number of areas since the last fiscal Report on...

Peru’s fiscal framework embedded in the Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency Law (FRTL) has proved to be effective in reducing debt. The FRTL embodies some countercyclical elements in response to output or commodity price shocks. The combination of a provision for a moderate deficit on...

This paper provides a perspective on how the IMF assesses a “sound fiscal policy,” focusing principally on industrial and emerging market economies. It observes six central criteria: the short-term fiscal policy stance, with greater emphasis on automatic stabilizers than discretionary fiscal...

This paper reviews Niger’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) Paper Progress Report. After more than two years of implementation, the PRS has truly become established as the overall framework for the various sectoral strategies in existence or being devised. Moreover, it has been used to...

Libya is highly dependent on exhaustible and volatile hydrocarbon resources, which constitute the bulk of government revenues. Although resource wealth provides the means to promote socio-economic development, procyclical fiscal policies threaten macroeconomic stability as well as fiscal...

This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes assesses Fiscal Transparency for Barbados. The report reveals that Barbados has a number of good practices on fiscal transparency including a legal requirement to publish the budget Estimates, the annual report of the accountant general, and...

Chad’s chronic instability has hindered growth and poverty reduction. Chad remains among the poorest countries in the world, and has made little progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. The global financial crisis affected Chad mainly through the decline in oil prices. Prompt...

Oil-producing countries have benefited from rising oil prices in recent years. The increase in oil exports and oil revenues has had major implications for these countries. These developments have revealed how governments manage their fiscal policies in light of changing oil-market conditions and...

Though many aspects of Russia's fiscal policy framework are close to best practice on paper, actual practice in recent years has been moving away from best practice. In particular, the continued focus on the overall rather than the nonoil balance, and the regular use of supplemental budgets to...

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the oldest customs union in the world, comprises Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland (known as the BLNS countries), and South Africa. This Selected Issues paper analyzes how policy has responded to the positive SACU revenue shock. It discusses the...