Europe > Norway
Abstract
Oil-producing countries have benefited from rising oil prices in recent years. The increase in oil exports and oil revenues has had major implications for these countries. These developments have revealed how governments manage their fiscal policies in light of changing oil-market conditions and the role of special fiscal institutions (SFIs). In this Occasional Paper, IMF experts examine the fiscal response of oil-producing countries to the recent oil boom and the role of SFIs in fiscal management, they review the experiences of selected countries, and they draw general lessons. In doing so, they link findings on best practice in the design of SFIs with broader fiscal management advice.
Abstract
The pamphlet (which updates the 1995 Guidelines for Fiscal Adjustment) presents the IMF’s approach to fiscal adjustment, and focuses on the role that sound government finances play in promoting macroeconomic stability and growth. Structured around five practical questions—when to adjust, how to assess the fiscal position, what makes for successful adjustment, how to carry out adjustment, and which institutions can help—it covers topics such as tax policies, debt sustainability, fiscal responsibility laws, and transparency.
Abstract
This chapter examines whether funds can help countries pursue good macroeconomic, and especially fiscal policies, and consequent design issues. Nonrenewable resource funds (NRF) have been suggested as a way of dealing with the effects of price variability, making it easier to put revenues aside when prices are high so that they can be made available to maintain expenditures when prices are low. Funds may also serve as mechanisms to allow part of the nonrenewable resource wealth to be shared by future generations. A detailed evaluation of country experience suggests that NRFs have been associated with a variety of operating rules and fiscal policy experience. In several cases, rules have been bypassed or changed and they do not themselves seem to have effectively constrained spending, and the integration of the fund's operations with overall fiscal policy has often proven problematic. Whether the political economy arguments for an NRF outweigh the potential disadvantages will need to be considered based on the situation in each country.
Abstract
Explores different ways of controlling pollution through -green-taxes or permits, and evaluates their advantages and disadvantages. While many countries use environmental taxes, interest in tradable permits is growing.
Abstract
This study examines the banking crises in Finland, Norway and Sweden, which took place in the early 1990s, and draws some policy conclusions from their experiences. One key conclusion is that factors in addition to business cycle effects explain the Nordic countries financial problems. Although the timing of the deregulation in all three countries coincided with a strongly expansionary macroeconomic momentum, the main reasons for the banking crises were the delayed policy responses, the structural characteristics of the financial systems, and the banks inadequate internal risk-management controls.
Abstract
This paper discusses systematic issues in international finance explained in the International Capital Markets report. The paper describes that the nature and extent of recent banking problems in several industrial countries along with the policy responses to those problems. It is observed that balance sheet problems in banking are widespread among the major industrial countries. The paper also analyses recent activity in the European currency unit bond and exchange markets, and reviews developments in the private financing of developing countries and discusses several issues raised by the recent experience, including the broadening of the investor base for developing country securities, the special role played by regional financial centers in East and Southeast Asia, and the systemic implications of the evolving pattern of developing country financing. A key influence on international capital movements in recent years was the rising international diversification of investment portfolios, which is generally believed to have increased in response to the liberalization of exchange and capital controls in many industrial countries in the 1970s and 1980s.
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the likely impact of the creation of the European Community (EC) internal market on the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members. The focus is on the four freedoms and the institutional and legal changes required for increased economic cooperation between the EC and EFTA. Although not formally part of the negotiations, certain tax issues are also raised. The paper is in ten parts and includes a summary and glossary. The paper also discusses the institutional and legal changes that may prove necessary for greater EC-EFTA cooperation and the implications of the internal market for trade, production, and resource allocation in the EFTA countries. It examines issues related to trade in goods-mainly industrial goods-and transport services and considers issues of labor mobility and trade in financial services. Changes would also appear desirable in the areas of industrial and intellectual property rights-notably counterfeiting, trademarks, copyrights, and patents.