A regional convergence pact adopted recently by the Conference of Heads of States of WAEMU provides a framework for fiscal convergence similar to the European Union’s Maastricht Treaty. Using bivariate co-integration and error-correction models, this paper investigates the relationship between...

Private investment is the principal transmission channel through which fiscal policy affects growth in high-income countries. In low-income countries, governance and also other considerations suggest that the primary channel is factor productivity. Empirical results reported in this paper...

This Selected Issues paper for the Solomon Islands reviews budget trends in the past decade and assesses medium-term budget prospects. Aid flows and revenue from import tariffs and logging are projected to decline. Spending pressures are likely to pick up considerably, owing to the need to...

This paper discusses Uganda’s Ex Post Assessment of Performance Under IMF-Supported Programs. Uganda’s annual average growth rate of about 6½ percent over the past decade was exceptional. Uganda was broadly successful in containing annual inflation to 5 percent during the...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix presents an overview of the fiscal developments in Mongolia since the late 1990s. It assesses the “quality†of the ongoing fiscal adjustment. The paper examines the dramatic expansion of bank credit to the private sector over the last...

The paper reviews the changing nature of intergovernmental fiscal relations between the provinces and the central government in China over the past two decades and provides an assessment of the success of previous reforms in meeting their objectives. Key existing weaknesses in the current system...

Singapore's policymakers have often used fiscal policy as a counter-cyclical tool. Empirical results based on a structural autoregression framework suggest that fiscal policy can be used for demand management, although the impact may be somewhat short lived. The short-lived impact could reflect...

This paper looks at the factors that have to be considered when designing an aggregate expenditure ceiling. It is argued that expenditure ceilings are effective in promoting fiscal discipline and sustainability, but that a number of trade-offs have to be made when setting up a fiscal framework...