This paper discusses key findings of the Financial System Stability Assessment on the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision, the Committee for Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems, and IMF Monetary and Financial Policy...

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...

Austerity measures are frequently enacted when the sustainability of public finances is in doubt. Such doubts are reflected in high sovereign yield spreads and put further strain on government finances. Is austerity successful in restoring market confidence, bringing about a reduction in yield...

Most studies on the relationship between public debt and economic growth implicity assume homegenous debt effects across their samples. We - in accordance with recent literature - challenge this view and state that there likely is a great deal of cross-country heterogeneity in that relationship....

Should the government run fiscal deficits in response to an adverse external shock that warrants transfer of resources from production of non-traded to traded goods? This paper considers normative fiscal policy implications of sectoral adjustment costs in a two-sector model with overlapping...

Local governments in Japan account for about 80 per cent of general government spending when excluding social security expenditures. Therefore, for the implementation of fiscal policy it is important how local governments will behave. On the basis of the economic theories on fiscal federalism it...

Japan's debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is the highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This paper will firstly answer the question of whether Japanese government debt is sustainable. Next, while the Domar condition and Bohn's condition...