Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
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- Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
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Bibliographic details
- Published: April 1, 2021
Overview
- Publication title: Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
- Focus: Tailoring fiscal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and adopting policies to reduce inequality and gaps in access to quality public services.
- Core message: Global vaccination should be scaled up as it can save lives and will eventually pay for itself with stronger employment and economic activity.
- Policy stance: Until the pandemic is brought under control globally, fiscal policies must remain flexible and supportive, while keeping debt at a manageable level over the long term.
Chapter 1 — Tailoring Fiscal Responses
- Scope: Overviews countries' fiscal actions in response to COVID-19 and discusses how governments' policies should adapt to get ahead of the pandemic, protect vulnerable households and viable firms, and set the stage for a greener, fairer, and more durable recovery.
- Key points:
- Global cooperation on vaccination must be scaled up to produce and distribute vaccines to all countries at affordable costs.
- Fiscal policy must remain flexible and supportive, and increasingly tailored to country circumstances, until the pandemic is under control globally.
- To balance the risks from growing debt with those from premature withdrawal of policy support, policymakers need to develop credible medium-term fiscal frameworks.
- Supporting measures:
- Improve the design of fiscal rules.
- “Preapprove” future tax reforms.
- Fiscal policy should enable a green, digital, and inclusive transformation of the economy in the post–COVID-19 environment.
Chapter 2 — A Fair Shot
- Scope: Discusses fiscal policies to tackle inequalities, especially in access to basic public services.
- Key points:
- Large preexisting inequalities have worsened the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the crisis, in turn, has escalated these inequalities.
- A holistic approach encompassing both predistributive and redistributive policies is needed to break the circle of inequality.
- Policy priorities:
- Invest in education, healthcare, and early childhood development.
- Strengthen social safety nets.
- Financing:
- Raise progressivity.
- Strengthen overall tax capacity.
- Political economy:
- Given that public support for better access to basic services, financed through higher taxes, has been strong and is likely rising with the pandemic, governments need to announce comprehensive policy packages, embedded in medium-term fiscal frameworks, that give everyone a fair shot and strengthen trust in governments.
- Expected outcomes:
- Support inclusive growth, strengthen trust, and build social cohesion.
Tools and Supporting Materials
- Mentioned resources:
- Database of Country Fiscal Measures in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Foreword by Vitor Gaspar.
- Executive Summary and Statistical Appendix.
- Video: A Conversation with Paolo Mauro and Henry Curr.
- Online Annexes.
Source: Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
Content in this bundle
- Dataset overview
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 1 Executive Summary. IMF Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 2 Executive Summary. IMF Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
- Executive Summary
- Foreword
- Methodological and Statistical Appendix. IMF Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
- Online Annex 1.1. Model Simulations of Fiscal Support Measures. IMF Fiscal Monitor, April 2021
- CHAPTER 2 A Fair Shot
- Full Report
- fiscalmonitordatabase-april2021-chapter2-updated
- Dataset overview