Narrow Your Choices

Refine By Countries

Refine By Series

Refine By Language

Refine By Date

—

Refine By IMF Taxonomy

Refine By JEL Taxonomy

Refine by LOC Taxonomy

Refine By THEMA Taxonomy

  • Print
  • Save

Business and Economics > Public Finance

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 39 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Selected Issues Papers x
Clear All Modify Search
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Estimating Fiscal Multiplier for Qatar: Qatar
Ken Miyajima
Econometric results suggest that Qatar’s strong capital spending multiplier became less impactful as the stock of capital rose to a high level, likely as the marginal impact declined. This supports Qatar’s strategy to shifts the State’s role to an enabler of private sector-led growth, focusing on expenditure to support build human capital and implementation of broader reform guided by the Third National Development Strategy.
Keywords:
Capital spending; fiscal multiplier; GCC; Qatar; strategy to shift; Qatar's strategy; copyright page; Qatar country dummy; allocation decision; Fiscal multipliers; Current spending; Stocks; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Financial Conditions and Their Growth Implications for Qatar
Dorothy Nampewo
This paper develops a Financial Conditions Index (FCI) for Qatar and uses the Growth-at-Risk (GaR) framework to examine the impact of financial conditions on Qatar’s non-hydrocarbon growth. The analysis shows that the FCI is an important leading indicator of Qatar’s non-hydrocarbon growth, highlighting its predictive potential for future economic performance. The GaR framework suggests that overall, the current downside risks to Qatar’s baseline non-hydrocarbon growth projections are relatively mild.
Keywords:
Financial conditions; non-hydrocarbon growth; Qatar; GaR framework; growth projection; Qatar's baseline; copyright page; financial conditions indicator; Financial conditions index; Oil prices; Central bank policy rate; Deposit rates; Post-clearance customs audit; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Post-Pandemic Changes to Chile’s Financial Markets: Chile
Tatsushi Okuda
Pension fund withdrawals, rising public debt, and the Central Bank of Chile’s pandemic liquidity injections have reshaped Chile’s financial landscape. In the context of the diminished demand for local bonds, large non-financial corporations and the government relied more on foreign investors. Overall, Chile’s financial depth has diminished, and markets have become more volatile and sensitive to shocks. Restoring pension funds as well as continuing to strengthen market resilience and crisis response capabilities are essential for ensuring future financial stability.
Keywords:
Financial sector stability; Financial depth; Pension fund withdrawal; market resilience; pandemic liquidity injection; Chile's financial markets; I. Chilean pension funds; Pension spending; Sovereign bonds; Bonds; Corporate bonds; COVID-19; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
The Challenge of Pension Reform in Kosovo: Republic of Kosovo
Boele Bonthuis
and
Selim Thaci
This paper examines the evolution and challenges of Kosovo's pension system. Since its inception, a basic pension and mandatory individual accounts have formed the key element of Kosovo’s pension system. Over the years, the pension system has expanded to include a variety of merit pensions, occupational pensions, and a legacy pension. While spending on the basic pension remains relatively low compared to international standards, there should be a more restrictive approach to special pension benefits. To enhance the clarity and effectiveness of pension indexation, it is essential to clearly define the index used for adjustments of the basic pension.
Keywords:
Pension policy; basic pension; special pension; retirement; pension spending; legacy pension; pension indexation; merit pension; merit pension schemes; Pensions; Pension reform; Aging; Europe
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Using Digitalization to Enhance Public Finance in Kosovo: Republic of Kosovo
Carolina Bloch
,
Mariano Moszoro
,
Mona Wang
,
Frank van Brunschot
, and
Yasemin Hurcan
Kosovo has embarked on a journey of digital transformation, developing digital infrastructure to provide access to households, companies, and educational institutions and modernizing its public finance system through GovTech. Digitalization and GovTech can facilitate Kosovo leapfrogging into advanced infrastructure and public service delivery. While Kosovo has achieved significant milestones—including nearly universal internet coverage and the comprehensive front-end e-Kosova portal—unconnected systems, relatively high consumer prices for digital inclusion, limited digital skills, and cybersecurity risks hinder the full realization of digital benefits.
Keywords:
Digital Transformation; GovTech Solutions; Public Finance Management; E-Government; Cybersecurity; maturity index; using digitalization; cybersecurity risk; potential of GovTech adoption; Digitalization; Public employment; Cyber risk; Europe
Cover Selected Issues Papers
How Has Dollarization Served Timor-Leste So Far?
Raju Huidrom
and
Danila Smirnov
This paper analyzes Timor-Leste’s historical economic performance and structure under dollarization. It considers several dimensions that determine the benefits and costs of the regime: (i) growth and inflation performance; (ii) business and financial cycle synchronization; (iii) adjustment to external shocks; and (iv) competitiveness. Dollarization has helped Timor-Leste achieve relatively low and stable inflation in the context of post conflict fragility, but may be contributing to weakening competitiveness. Improved performance under dollarization requires reduced fiscal imbalances and advancement of reforms that address structural bottlenecks that also undermine competitiveness.
Keywords:
Dollarization; business cycles; competitiveness; I. data description; inflation performance; Asia-Pacific department; weakening competitiveness; structure under dollarization; Inflation; Real effective exchange rates; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Options for Creating Fiscal Room for Investment and Other Spending Needs: Germany
Galen Sher
Germany needs substantially higher levels of public investment. At the same time, the country is facing rising pension, healthcare, long-term care, and defense expenditures. If Germany were eventually to ease moderately its national fiscal rules, as recommended by IMF staff, this would create some fiscal room but would not be sufficient on its own. This paper therefore explores options for Germany to generate additional fiscal room by reducing its public spending and increasing its revenues, while minimizing the associated costs to the economy. To aid this exploration, this paper also examines areas where Germany’s spending and revenue levels stand out in international comparison. The options for generating fiscal room include: (i) finding efficiencies in healthcare spending; (ii) stabilizing the finances of the social security system; (iii) eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies; (iv) raising revenues from goods and services taxes; (v) raising property taxes and closing loopholes in inheritance taxes; and (vi) earning higher returns on the government’s financial assets.
Keywords:
taxes; subsidies; healthcare; social security; revenue level; spending pressure; property tax tax revenue; expenditure level; advanced economy; Consumption taxes; Property tax; Pension spending
Cover Selected Issues Papers
State-Owned Enterprises in Mozambique: Current Situation and Policy Options
Can Sever
and
Santos Bila
This paper documents the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Mozambique, discusses some important fiscal issues, and makes the case for improvements in governance and transparency. A first step is to enhance timely and regular collection of data that is easily accessible to better assess the performance of SOEs and raise awareness about associated fiscal costs and risks.
Keywords:
State-owned enterprises; governance; transparency; policy option; state-owned enterprises in Mozambique; role of state-owned enterprises; procurement policy; SOE sector; Public enterprises; Fiscal risks; Arrears; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Public Spending Pressures in the UK: United Kingdom
Andrew Hodge
This paper characterizes UK public spending pressures over a ten-year horizon and their implications for public deficits and debt levels. The analysis is based on a ‘bottom-up’ scenario for total public expenditure, that includes, inter alia, implementation of the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan, public investment to support the Balanced Pathway to Net Zero, and state pension spending under the Triple Lock policy. This scenario is approximately consistent with IMF staff’s baseline projection for the medium term (to FY2029/30) shown in the 2024 Article IV consultation staff report, which assumes real growth in Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) of two percent per year after FY2024/25. Assuming revenue stabilizes in FY2028/29 at the level projected by IMF staff (40.8 percent of GDP), public debt does not stabilize over ten years, reaching 101.3 percent of GDP by FY2034/35. Stabilizing debt will require the primary balance to be 0.8–1.4 ppts of GDP higher per year (on average after FY2024/25), depending on the time horizon for stabilization (5 or 10 years) and the target probability of debt stabilization (50 or 75 percent).
Keywords:
United Kingdom; fiscal policy; expenditure; revenue; debt; baseline projection; article IV consultation staff report; public spending pressure; stabilizing debt; spending scenario; Pension spending; Capital spending; Education spending; Global
Cover Selected Issues Papers
Upskilling the UK Workforce: United Kingdom
Pragyan Deb
and
Gloria Li
The UK workforce has larger and more chronic skills gaps than in most peer countries, with surveys reporting widespread recruitment difficulties, with implications for output, in high-skill sectors like digital and software, manufacturing, medicine and life sciences, teaching, and construction. This partly reflects declines in primary and post-secondary education outcomes (particularly science scores, over the past two decades) and in workplace training and apprenticeships, particularly for the young. Moreover, the recent increase in non-EU migrants has not fully offset the adverse impact from Brexit on the availability of needed skills, including because smaller firms face more recruitment hurdles with regard to non-EU hires. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to upskill the UK workforce, both by building on ongoing efforts, as well as additional concrete measures to: (i) encourage students and young workers to join and excel in STEM; (ii) ensure adequate vocational and on the job training, particularly for the young; (iii) retain the talent produced by UKs world leading universities; (iv) upskill the existing labor force; and (v) facilitate attraction and retention of in-demand skills through adjustments to the visa regime.
Keywords:
Potential Growth; Supply of Labour; Skills; UK workforce; recruitment difficulty; demand skill; post-secondary education outcome; skills gap; Labor force; Education spending