Considering the IMF's Perspective on a "Sound Fiscal Policy"
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Summary:
This paper provides a perspective on how the IMF assesses a “sound fiscal policy,” focusing principally on industrial and emerging market economies. It observes six central criteria: the short-term fiscal policy stance, with greater emphasis on automatic stabilizers than discretionary fiscal policy; relevance of medium- and sometimes long-term issues; fiscal sustainability; capacity for aggregate fiscal policy implementation (including political economy factors); structural content of fiscal policy (tax efficiency and public expenditure quality); and institutional, governance, and process issues associated with budget implementation and revenue collection. Greater emphasis could be placed on an adequate margin to deal with uncertain long-term challenges.
Series:
Policy Discussion Paper No. 2002/008
Subject:
Expenditure Fiscal policy Fiscal stance Fiscal sustainability Public debt
English
Publication Date:
July 1, 2002
ISBN/ISSN:
9781451971019/1564-5193
Stock No:
PPIEA0082002
Pages:
28
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