Boom and bust phases in asset prices have become a pervasive feature of macroeconomic developments in many advanced economies. This paper studies fiscal policy during boom-bust phases in asset prices and draws several conclusions. First, expansions and contractions in economic activity during...

We look into Brazil''s public sector accounts during the two administrations of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso: 1995-98 and 1998-2002. We underline the fact that the authorities'' attitude was as important as the pace of the structural reforms for understanding the dynamics of the public...

India''s fiscal problem has deep roots in its federal fiscal system, where multiple players find it difficult to coordinate adjustment. The size and closed nature of the Indian economy, aided by its deep domestic capital market and large captive pool of domestic savings, has disguised the cost...

This paper proposes a framework for assessing fiscal sustainability in heavily indebted countries dependent on exhaustible resources, with reference to Gabon. It finds that fiscal sustainability could be achieved by: (i) developing a fiscal rule for the non-oil primary fiscal balance compatible...

This paper stresses three factors that amplified the 1990s financial crisis in Ecuador, namely institutional weaknesses, rigidities in public finances, and high financial dollarization. Institutional factors restricted the government''s ability to respond in a timely manner and efficiently...

This paper discusses fiscal surveillance criteria for the countries of the Central African Monetary and Economic Union (CEMAC), most of which depend heavily on oil exports. At present, the CEMAC''s macroeconomic surveillance exercise sets as fiscal target a floor on the basic budgetary balance....

The paper examines fiscal sustainability issues for the case of Eritrea but has wider implications for addressing fiscal and debt sustainability. It begins with a formal definition and explanation of analytical sustainability indicators, followed by an assessment of the causes of fiscal deficits...

The global financial crisis had a much more pronounced impact on South Africa relative to some other large emerging markets. The overriding economic policy challenge is to reduce unemployment and inequality through higher economic growth. Unemployment is a key policy focus; and a wage subsidy...

Indonesia’s growth in 2009 was four and a half percent, the third highest in the G-20 group of countries; and the pace is accelerating in 2010. Both push and pull factors have attracted large portfolio inflows, particularly into government bonds and Short-term Bank Indonesia certificates...

This 2008 Article IV Consultation highlights that South Africa’s economic performance has strengthened in the last several years, with real GDP growing by 5–51⁄2 percent in 2005–07, inflation declining to mid-single digits until recently, and employment growing steadily. However, 2008...