Japan is facing a sizable fiscal imbalance against a backdrop of weak trend growth and growing external imbalances in the world economy. This paper examines the possible impact of fiscal adjustment and productivity-enhancing structural reforms on the Japanese and world economies. Simulation...

An improvement in the quality of public expenditures is needed in many countries, given binding macroeconomic and fiscal constraints, and poverty reduction and distributional objectives. This process involves a reassessment of methodology used for this purpose by countries and international...

This paper assesses the sustainability of Japan’s fiscal position. The simulations indicate that, even if the government’s pension reform plan is fully implemented, the initial budget imbalance, combined with pressures from population aging, would lead to explosive increases in government...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix presents a number of studies designed to probe in more depth issues of fiscal adjustment, the public sector’s creditworthiness as judged by foreign lenders, and the banking system in Greece. The paper highlights that fiscal adjustment in...

This Selected Issues paper explores the determinants of Greece’s potential output, an exercise that could shed light on its current cyclical position, as well as on its medium-term growth prospects. To that end, a production function is estimated, with capital and labor as factors of...

This paper reviews the uneven record of fiscal performance in the states of the former Soviet Union since independence. Deficits have come down rapidly, an important contribution to stabilization. Given, however, the unexpectedly severe revenue decline and limited financing, the stabilization...

Assessing the sustainability of a given fiscal policy is especially important for countries that depend on income from exhaustible resources. Political and growth pressures may push governments to raise expenditure when revenue from exhaustible resources rises, but cutting outlays when price...

This paper examines the rationale for the imposition of fiscal rules as a way to reduce budgetary imbalances. It presents theoretical arguments for the existence of a “fiscal deficit bias” and the empirical evidence on the economic, political and institutional factors leading to this bias....

This paper reviews lessons in fiscal consolidation for the former Soviet Union that emerge from the experience of Central and Eastern European economies in transition. A central lesson is the need to support the macroeconomic stabilization with a front-loaded fiscal adjustment. Consistent with...

The IMF MULTIMOD model is used to trace the economic impact of a 20 percent reduction in world military expenditures. GDP falls in the short run, however private consumption and investment rise, leading to an increase in GDP in the medium and long run. The estimated gains to economic welfare are...