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Business and Economics > Public Finance

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 105 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Estonia, Republic of x
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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Estonia: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper explains Estonia’s recent losses of export market shares. Estonia’s export market share has fallen sharply, signalling that exporters have difficulties to keep up with foreign competition. While the immediate cause of this decline can be traced back to an adverse combination of external shocks triggered by the war in Ukraine, signs of faltering export performance surfaced already in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and thus predate recent shocks. Using a constant share decomposition, this paper shows that, unlike in Latvia and Lithuania, a significant portion of the decline in Estonia’s export share can be attributed to the ‘intensive margin’, i.e., a shrinking share of Estonia’s exports in the main destination markets—a sign of weakening external competitiveness and declining relative productivity. A few high-level policy implications can be drawn. Addressing the erosion of external competitiveness will require structural reforms aimed at enhancing productivity, removing impediment to a structural transformation of the economy toward more technologically intensive and higher value-added products and services, as well as efforts to ensure that real wage growth remains closely aligned with productivity growth. By addressing these underlying challenges, Estonia can restore external competitiveness and ensure continued convergence toward the income levels of EU most advanced economies and Nordic neighbors.
Keywords:
labor market liberalization; Within-Sector allocative efficiency; export market share; export share decline; TFP dynamics; Estonia's government spending; tax revenue-to-GDP ratio; Total factor productivity; Exports; Capital adequacy requirements; Productivity; Baltics; Global; Europe
Cover Technical Notes and Manuals
Digital Solutions Guidelines for Public Financial Management
Lorena Rivero del Paso
,
Sailendra Pattanayak
,
Gerardo Uña
, and
Hervé Tourpe
The Digital Solutions Guidelines for Public Financial Management (Guidelines) are intended to serve as a comprehensive reference material for the assessment, design, and improvement of digital initiatives in the public financial management (PFM) area. To support the digital transformation of PFM functions, the Guidelines are structured around three Pillars – Functional, IT Architectural, and Governance and Management. Each pillar comprises six principles, which are further broken down into one to four attributes to promote more efficient and transparent PFM operations while fostering innovation and managing digital risks. These Guidelines also allow a graduated approach to digital transformation of PFM through three levels of maturity for each Attribute – foundational, intermediate, and advanced – to help take into account country-specific contexts and capacities in digital transformation strategies.
Keywords:
Digitalization; Digital Transformation; Public Financial Management; GovTech; Financial Management Information Systems; Open Data; IMF Library; PFM function; solutions guidelines implementation tool; manuals 2023/07; title page; PFM information systems; Budget execution and treasury management; Budget planning and preparation; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Nordic-Baltic Regional Report: Technical Assistance Report-Nordic-Baltic Technical Assistance Project Financial Flows Analysis, AML/CFT Supervision, and Financial Stability
International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
This paper presents a regional report on Nordic-Baltic technical assistance project: financial flows analysis, Anti-Money Laundering and combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Supervision, and Financial Stability. The purpose of the project is to conduct an analysis of cross-border ML threats and vulnerabilities in the Nordic-Baltic region—encompassing Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden (the Nordic-Baltic Constituency or NBC)—and issue a final report containing recommendations for mitigating the potential risks. The financial flows analysis presented in this report is based on the IMF staff’s analysis of cross-border payments data. Six out of the eight Nordic-Baltic countries have seen an increase in aggregate flows since 2013. Monitoring cross-border financial flows provides countries with a deeper understanding of their external ML threat environment and evolving cross-border related risks they are facing. Leveraging broader analysis of ML/TF cross-border risk, the Nordic-Baltic countries should develop their own understanding of higher-risk countries reflecting country-specific ML/TF threats.
Keywords:
TF risk assessment; colleges participation; TF risk; EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority; supervisory cooperation; information Sharin; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Virtual currencies; Correspondent banking; Internal controls; Financial sector stability; Baltics; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Estonia: 2023 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The 2023 Article IV Consultation discusses that after a swift rebound from the pandemic in 2021, Russia’s war on Ukraine has triggered a sharp and broad-based downturn for Estonia. Inflation has declined from a peak of 25 percent in August 2022 to 11.2 percent in May 2023, but it remains among the highest in the euro area. Over time, inflation has become increasingly broad-based, with core inflation also rising rapidly, despite the widening negative output gap. Estonia’s policy mix needs to be re-calibrated to support a more sustainable recovery. A much less stimulative fiscal policy should be considered. Alongside targeted financial policies to underpin financial stability and structural reforms to raise productivity, address labor market shortages, and promote the green and digital transition, this policy mix will help Estonia achieve sustainable and inclusive growth over the longer term. Targeted structural reforms would help raise productivity, address labor market shortages, and promote the green and digital transition. Encouraging an increase in the share of private sector R&D to a level closer to the EU average would accelerate the evolution toward higher value-added production and exports.
Keywords:
disinflationary effort; ECB interest rates; policy mix; financial asset; data provision; transparency policy; labor market shortage; Inflation; Labor markets; Wages; Value-added tax; Global; Baltics
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Euro Area Policies: 2023 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Euro Area; IMF Country Report No. 23/264
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The 2023 Article IV Consultation discusses that the euro area economy has shown remarkable resilience in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the largest terms of trade shock in several decades, thanks to a swift policy response and a strong rebound in contact-intensive services. Looking ahead, growth is expected to pick up gradually throughout 2023 and 2024, supported by a recovery in real incomes in the context of continued tight labor market conditions, a further easing of supply constraints, and firmer external demand, even as financial conditions continue to tighten. While headline inflation has fallen sharply recently after reaching record high levels, core inflation is proving more persistent. As tight financial conditions restrain demand and supply shocks dissipate further, inflation is set to decline further but is expected to remain elevated for an extended period. Renewed supply shocks, which could result from an escalation of the war in Ukraine and a related increase of commodity prices, or a further intensification of geoeconomic fragmentation, would also push up inflation and hurt growth. On the upside, the economy could again prove more resilient than expected, especially amid a still large stock of excess savings.
Keywords:
Euro area headline inflation; inflation expectation; EU climate investment fund; EU AML authority; EU institution; EU bank; core inflation; EU economy; Inflation; Energy prices; Fiscal stance; Monetary tightening; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Good Will Hunting: Do Disasters Make Us More Charitable?
Mr. Serhan Cevik
Humans are usually compassionate, caring and empathetic toward others, but are we really hardwired for altruism when a disaster hits? There is evidence that people exposed to natural disasters tend to behave more philanthropically, but most studies rely on small-scale surveys and experimental data. For that reason, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating whether the COVID-19 pandemic has altered prosocial tendencies and charitable donations, using a novel daily dataset of debit and credit card transactions. I conduct a real-time analysis of actual charitable donations in three European countries and find that the COVID-19 pandemic and government interventions have no significant effect on how much people contribute to charities as a share of total spending. A higher preference for precautionary savings in the midst of the pandemic appears to outweigh altruistic behavior, while government welfare programs crowds out private charitable donations.
Keywords:
Natural disasters; COVID-19 pandemic; charitable giving; donations; genorosity; prosocial behavior; card transactions; Baltics; Estonia; Latvia; Lithania; credit card transactions; government welfare program; real-time analysis; government intervention; pandemic shock; COVID-19; Consumer credit; Total expenditures; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Targeted, Implementable, and Practical Energy Relief Measures for Households in Europe
Mr. Nicolas Arregui
,
Oya Celasun
,
Ms. Dora M Iakova
,
Ms. Aiko Mineshima
,
Mr. Victor Mylonas
,
Mr. Frederik G Toscani
,
Yu Ching Wong
,
Mr. Li Zeng
, and
Jing Zhou
The recommended way of helping households during the ongoing European energy crisis is to allow price signals to operate freely while providing targeted compensation to the vulnerable. In practice, however, institutional, political, and technical constraints have led many European governments to adopt broad, price-suppressing measures, which impede the adjustment in demand, have high fiscal costs, and widen cross-country gaps in prices. This paper focuses on easy-to-implement, second-best policies. Bonuses or rebates on energy bills (that are not linked to the current volume of consumption) or block tariffs are simple options which would improve on the current policy design in many countries. To avoid stoking inflation, fiscal policy should not add to aggregate demand, so relief for energy bills should be targeted and coupled with offsetting fiscal measures. One option is to reclaim the relief from the better-off through income taxation, which would also make support more progressive.
Keywords:
energy prices; price pass-through; household incidence; distributional analysis; social safety nets; energy cost support measure; I. consumer energy price inflation; price signal; price-suppressing measure; EU government; Energy pricing; Consumption; Natural gas sector; Income; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Estonia: 2022 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for the Republic of Estonia
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Estonia’s economy is vulnerable to the fallout from the war in Ukraine given its geographical proximity to Russia, the geopolitical context, and high passthrough from global energy prices to domestic inflation. Although direct exposures to Russia and Ukraine through trade, services, and financial channels appear to be contained, the war is already significantly affecting economic confidence. Nevertheless, economic activity has progressively adapted to the pandemic, rebounding strongly in 2021, and as of mid-2022, remaining resilient to the headwinds from the war. Inflation has surged into double digits and is increasingly broad-based.
Keywords:
EU cohesion policy; ECB interest rates; electricity grid; labor market participation; financial asset; wage-price spiral; digitalization advantage; higher-than-expected inflation; data provision; inflation reading; Inflation; Energy prices; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Global; Baltics
Cover PIMA Handbook
PIMA Handbook
Public Investment Management Assessment, 1st Edition
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.

Abstract

This handbook is aimed at anyone who is involved in a Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) or who has a practical interest in public investment management. It is intended to be useful for country authorities, IMF staff, staff of other financial institutions and development organizations, and anyone who is interested in exploring different aspects of public investment management to understand how country systems are designed and how they work in practice.

Keywords:
IMF Public Investment Management Assessment; public investment; PIMA; PIM; public investment management; handbook; investment; government; governance; country; spending; infrastructure governance; investment efficiency; investment shock; investment spending; public investment spending; public investment and public-private partnerships (PPP); infrastructure; budget planning; planification; allocation; execution; fiscal rules; global; Asia and Pacific; Africa; Caribbean; Sub-Saharan Africa; Western Hemisphere; Middle East; investment trend; infrastructure investment spending; Pima report; investment planning; PPP investment; Budget planning and preparation; Capital spending; Capital budget
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Estonia: Technical Assistance Report-Fiscal Transparency Evaluation
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
The government of Estonia places a high importance on openness and transparency, both for their citizens and for regional and international partners. This is evidenced from various earlier reports on transparency and the implementation of many subsequent improvements in fiscal transparency practices. The objective of the assessment was to identify areas of fiscal risk vulnerabilities and reform priorities to ensure further improvements in transparent practices.
Keywords:
General government Fiscal; government finance statistics manual; General government assets; General government debt; General government investment; Subnational government; Budget planning and preparation; Financial statements; Fiscal risks; Public sector; Europe; Western Europe; Global; Baltics; Africa