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Business and Economics > Public Finance

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Cover IMF Working Papers
Government Debt and Growth: The Role of R&D
Can Sever
Economic growth in the advanced economies (AEs) has been slowing down since the early 2000s, while government debt ratios have been rising. The recent surge in debt at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has further intensified concerns about these phenomena. This paper aims to offer insight into the high-debt low-growth environment in AEs by exploring a causal link from government debt to future growth, specifically through the impact of debt on R&D activities. Using data from manufacturing industries since the 1980s, it shows that (i) government debt leads to a decline in growth, particularly in R&D-intensive industries; (ii) the differential effect of government debt on these industries is persistent; and (iii) more developed or open financial systems tend to mitigate this negative impact. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship between government debt and growth in AEs, given the role of technological progress and innovation in economic growth.
Keywords:
Government debt; fiscal policy; economic growth; R&D; innovation; financial development; economic growth in the advanced economies; R&D activity; impact of debt; debt level; affect tax dynamics; Financial sector development; Manufacturing; Productivity; Aging; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Niger: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
2024 Selected Issues
Keywords:
B. revenue potential; output gap estimate; governance weakness; output gap estimation; tax revenue potential; Potential output; Output gap; Sub-Saharan Africa; North Africa; Global; West Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Poland: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
2024 Selected Issues
Keywords:
D. pension inequity; convergence success; firm investment trend; B. pension projection; E. pension funds' role; pension benefit; Pension spending; Pensions; Productivity; Aging; Total factor productivity; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Finland: 2025 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Finland
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The economy has begun to recover from the 2023 recession, but the strength of the rebound is hindered by still weak construction investment and tepid growth among trading partners. Falling energy prices and weak domestic demand have temporarily reduced inflation below 2 percent. The economic recovery is expected to gain momentum in 2025, but downside risks, especially from abroad, remain elevated.
Keywords:
Ministry of Finance estimate; R&D expenditure; transparency policy; population growth boost housing demand; FIN-FSA favor; Finland's economy; strengthening growth momentum; Productivity; Fiscal stance; Baltics; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Chasing the Dream: Industry-Level Productivity Developments in Europe
Serhan Cevik
,
Sadhna Naik
, and
Keyra Primus
European countries are lagging behind in productivity growth, with significant productivity gaps across industries. In this study, we use comparable industry-level data to explore the patterns and sources of total factor productivity (TFP) growth across 28 countries in Europe over the period 1995–2020. Our empirical results highlight four main points: (i) TFP growth is driven largely by the extent to which countries are involved in scientific and technological innovation as the leader country or benefiting from stronger knowledge spillovers; (ii) the technological gap is associated with TFP growth as countries move towards the technological frontier by adopting new innovations and technologies; (iii) increased investment in information and communications technology (ICT) capital and research and development (R&D) contributes significantly to higher TFP growth; and (iv)the impact of human capital tends to be stronger when a country is closer to the technological frontier. The core findings of this study call for policy measures and structural reforms to promote innovation and facilitate the diffusion of new and existing technologies across Europe.
Keywords:
Total factor productivity; technology; R&D; innovation; human capital; Europe; productivity development; developments in Europe; core finding; TFP slowdown; TFP difference; Productivity; Capital spending; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Output Gap Uncertainty and Fiscal Policy Adjustment in Real-Time in Emerging Economies
Giacomo Cattelan
and
Boaz Nandwa
Uncertainty around the real-time output gap has important implications for fiscal policy. This study uses successive vintages of the World Economic Outlook for emerging markets (EMs) during 1998-2022 to examine the reaction of discretionary fiscal policy to uncertain economic cycle in real-time. The findings show that EMs tend to have persistently negative and significantly more volatile real-time output gap estimates compared to advanced economies (AEs) and are less responsive to the output gap shocks. We calibrate a New Keynesian DSGE model to match the behavior of an average EM. The results from the model suggest that when EM policy makers are equally concerned about uncertainty around the output gap estimates and about fiscal implementation, fiscal policy is less counter-cyclical than the benchmark case with no uncertainty, entailing an efficiency loss for the purpose of output gap stabilization. On the other hand, when the concern is only about output gap uncertainty, EM policy makers tend to react more counter-cyclically but at a cost of public debt spiking in the short term and stabilizing over the long term. This implies that it might be optimal for EM policy makers to act more aggressively to stabilize the economy. We show that by adjusting the relative importance of output gap vs debt stabilization in their objective function, EM policy makers can achieve a similar outcome as in the benchmark case with no uncertainty.
Keywords:
Fiscal policy; real-time output gap estimates; public debt; output gap uncertainty; output gap shock; output gap estimate; real-time output gap; fiscal policy adjustment; Output gap; Fiscal stance; Neoclassical theory
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of South Sudan: Third Review Under the Staff-Monitored Program with Board Involvement-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for the Republic of South Sudan
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This paper focuses on South Sudan’s Third Review under the Staff-Monitored Program with Board Involvement. Severe spillovers from the conflict in Sudan, including refugee inflows and damages to an oil pipeline, have exacerbated South Sudan’s difficult humanitarian and macroeconomic situation, resulting in an economic slowdown, sharp exchange rate depreciation, high inflation, and higher spending needs against the backdrop of large fiscal revenue losses. Discussions with the South Sudanese authorities during the Third Review of the Staff-Monitored Program with Board Involvement (PMB) focused on re-calibrating macroeconomic policy to address the impact of the external shocks. The authorities remain committed to implementing strong policies and reform measures to restore macroeconomic stability. IMF Management completed the Third review of the PMB with South Sudan. The implementation of commitments taken by the authorities under the Letter of Intent will continue to support macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability. The authorities remain committed to fiscal and monetary prudence and to implementing their medium-term reform agenda.
Keywords:
authorities' priority; government operation; VAT regime; authorities view; reform agenda; Oil production; Quasi-fiscal operations; Oil, gas and mining taxes; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Economic Impact of Fiscal Policy Uncertainty: Evidence from a New Cross-Country Database
Gee Hee Hong
,
Shikun (Barry) Ke
, and
Anh D. M. Nguyen
Fiscal policy uncertainty (FPU)—ambiguity in government spending and tax plans, as well as in public debt valuation—is widely regarded as a source of economic and financial disruptions. However, assessing its impact has so far been limited to a few large economies. In this paper, we construct a novel database of news-based fiscal policy uncertainty for 189 countries. Importantly, we track fiscal uncertainty events that generate global attention that we refer to as the “global fiscal policy uncertainty." This uncertainty has contractionary effects, reducing industrial production in both advanced and emerging market economies, with impacts greater than country-specific fiscal policy uncertainty. Additionally, global fiscal policy uncertainty raises sovereign borrowing costs and generates synchronous movements in the global financial variables, even after accounting for US monetary policy shocks.
Keywords:
Fiscal policy uncertainty; news-based uncertainty; propagation of global shocks; VAR; novel database; uncertainty events; impact of Fiscal Policy Uncertainty; FPU index; uncertainty indicator; Industrial production; Debt default; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of Latvia: 2024 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
The 2024 Article IV Consultation highlights that the Latvian economy contracted with significant disinflation. Amid high uncertainty, growth is projected to rebound, but risks are tilted to the downside. Considering the improving outlook, the IMF Staff recommends a less expansionary, neutral fiscal stance for 2024 and a tighter fiscal stance in 2025. Although Latvia has some fiscal space, structural fiscal measures are needed to provide buffers for medium to long term spending pressures. Although the financial sector has so far been resilient, continued monitoring of macrofinancial vulnerabilities and spillovers is warranted. While the current macroprudential policy stance is broadly appropriate, the recent adjustment to the borrower-based measures for energy-efficient housing loans should be reconsidered. The overall policy stance strikes the right balance between maintaining financial stability and the need to extend credit to the economy. However, borrower-based macroprudential measures should be relaxed only when their presence is overly stringent from the financial stability perspective.
Keywords:
World Bank-International Monetary Fund mission; IMF-World Bank mission; audit committee charter; executive board assessment; anti-corruption plan; Labor markets; Productivity; Fiscal stance; Inflation; Baltics
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Angola: 2024 First Post-Financing Assessment-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This paper presents Post Financing Assessment (PFA) Consultation with Angola. Angola’s capacity to repay the IMF is adequate though subject to risks. Angola remained resilient in the face of significant challenges in 2023, including weaker oil production and prices. Spending adjustments helped contain the impact of weaker oil prices and lower production in 2023, though the gains from fiscal consolidation were lower-than-anticipated. The nonoil primary fiscal deficit (NOPFD), estimated at 4.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024, is expected to steadily decline in the medium term on modestly improving non-oil revenues, moderately lower current and capital expenditures, and savings from fuel subsidy reform. Continued efforts on enhancing the monetary policy framework are needed to reduce inflation and support non-oil medium-term growth. Implementing broad ranging structural reforms is vital to improve business environment and maintain growth in the context of a long-term decline of the oil sector. Addressing issues related to governance, gender, and climate change remains critical to achieving economic diversification and sustainable growth.
Keywords:
anchor inflation expectation; private sector borrowing costs; oil price shock; Angola economy; inflation reduction; oil dependence; Oil prices; Oil production; Energy subsidies; Global