IMF Staff Country Reports

This Technical Assistance Report on Slovak Republic discusses implementing public expenditure limits (PEL). The main objective behind the introduction of the PEL is to create an operational instrument to strengthen fiscal discipline and fiscal sustainability. The introduction of the PEL provides an opportunity to move beyond the annual budget and take strategic budgeting a step further into the medium term. To strengthen the budget process, the report proposes a strategic phase to the budget process, currently lacking, which could start with a Fiscal Strategy Report outlining fiscal challenges and policy options for consideration by the Council of Ministers. Based on the recommendations in this report, the current caretaker government has a unique opportunity to propose an agenda of public financial management reforms to the new government that will emerge from the elections in September. These recommendations rely heavily on the experience of countries that have to some extent successfully implemented PEL and progressively moved toward medium-term budgeting. Further detailed work will be needed in many of the above areas to flesh out the precise laws, decrees, regulations, or processes that will need to be changed to kick start the reforms.