What are Fiscal Councils? Fiscal councils (sometimes referred to as independent fiscal institutions) are often non-partisan, technical bodies entrusted as a public finance watchdog to strengthen credibility of fiscal policies with a variety of mandates. In this dataset, a fiscal council is defined as a permanent agency with a statutory or executive mandate to assess publicly and independently from partisan influence the government’s fiscal policies, plans and performance against macroeconomic objectives related to the long-term sustainability of public finances, short-medium-term macroeconomic stability, and other official objectives (IMF 2013). The dataset focuses on the de jure arrangements and not to what degree those arrangements are effective or have been adhered to in practice.

About this Dataset: The IMF Fiscal Council Dataset: The 2024 Update describes key features of 54 institutions  that are identified as fiscal councils across the IMF membership as of end-2024. The 2024 Update Fiscal Council dataset builds on the previous 2016 and 2021 versions prepared by Debrun, Zhang, and Lledó (2017) and Davoodi, Elger, Fotiou, Garcia-Macia, Lagerborg, W. Raphael Lam, and Pillai (2022), respectively. The current dataset (the 2024 update) reflects the latest developments, broadens the country coverage, and enhances data quality. The dataset includes general information such as the official name and acronym of the council and the date of creation or major reforms, the main features of the council's remit, their specific tasks and instruments to influence the conduct of fiscal policy, as well as key institutional characteristics such as the existence of formal guarantees of independence, accountability requirements, communication aspects, and human resources.

The Technical Manual "The Fiscal Council Dataset: The 2024 Update" by Virginia Alonso, Clara Arroyo, Ozlem Aydin, Vybhavi Balasundharam, Hamid R. Davoodi, Gabriel Hegab, W. Raphael Lam, Anh Nguyen, Natalia Salazar Ferro, Galen Sher, Alexandra Solovyeva, and Nino Tchelishvili (2025) provides the list and definition of variables included in the dataset.

Suggested citation: Alonso, Virginia, Clara Arroyo, Ozlem Aydin, Vybhavi Balasundharam, Hamid R. Davoodi, Gabriel Hegab, W. Raphael Lam, Anh Nguyen, Natalia Salazar Ferro, Galen Sher, Alexandra Solovyeva, and Nino Tchelishvili. 2025. "Fiscal Councils Dataset: The 2024 Update", International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.

Contact: The dataset is maintained by the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department. It is an ongoing project and we welcome comments on the data, including suggestions to enhance coverage. Please send your queries or comments to IMFFISCALRULES@imf.org.

Previous Vintage: 2016 Fiscal Council Dataset, (Debrun, Zhang, and Lledó, 2017); 2021 Fiscal Council Dataset (Davoodi, Fotiou, Garcia-Macia, Lagerborg, Lam, and Pillai (2022).

Fiscal Councils Around the World, end-2024

Fiscal Councils in Europe, end-2024

Map disclaimer: The boundaries, colors, denominations, and any other information shown on the maps do not imply, on the part of the International Monetary Fund, any judgment on the legal status of any territory or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.