Central banks and other public financial institutions act as agents of fiscal policy in many countries. Their ""quasi-fiscal"" operations and activities can affect the overall public sector balance without affecting the budget deficit as conventionally measured, may also have important...

Developing countries with VATs typically exempt a large number of goods and services. Following a brief discussion of the rationale for exemptions, this paper presents a formula for the base of a VAT with exemptions. Two basic adjustments must be made to the base without exemptions: subtraction...