What are Fiscal Rules? A fiscal rule is a long-lasting constraint on fiscal policy through numerical limits on budgetary aggregates. Fiscal rules typically aim at correcting distorted incentives and containing pressures to overspend, particularly in good times, so as to ensure fiscal responsibility and debt sustainability. The IMF Fiscal Rules dataset focuses on de-jure arrangements and not to what degree rules are effective or have been adhered in practice. The criteria to be included as fiscal rules are listed in 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 Rules at a Glance: An Update 1985-2024." International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC.
About this Dataset: It provides systematic information on the use and design of fiscal rules covering national and supranational fiscal rules in 123 economies from 1985 to 2024. The dataset covers four types of rules: budget balance rules (BBR), debt rules (DR), expenditure rules (ER), and revenue rules (RR), applying to the central or general government or the public sector. The dataset presents details on various characteristics of rules, such as their legal basis, coverage, escape clauses, correction mechanism, stabilization properties, as well as a measure of compliance with fiscal rules. The dataset takes stock of key supporting features that are in place, including independent monitoring bodies and fiscal responsibility laws. It builds on the previous 2015 and 2022 versions prepared by Lledó, Yoon, Fang, Mbaye, and Kim (2017), and Davoodi, Elger, Fotiou, Garcia-Macia, Lagerborg, Lam, and Pillai (2022).
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 Rules Dataset: 1985-2024" International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC.
Downloads: 2025 Staff Discussion Note | Working Paper | Dataset | Technical Manual
Previous vintage: Fiscal Rules Dataset 1985-2015 (Lledó, Yoon, Fang, Mbaye, and Kim, 2017); Fiscal Rules Dataset 1985-2021 (Davoodi, Elger, Fotiou, Garcia-Macia, Lagerborg, Lam, and Pillai 2022) | Staff Discussion Notes: Fiscal Guardrails against High Debt and Looming Spending Pressures (Acalin, Alonso, Arroyo, Lam, Martinez, Nguyen, Roch, Sher, and Solovyeva 2025); The Return to Fiscal Rules (Caselli, Davoodi, Goncalves, Hong, Medas, Nguyen, and Yoo 2022); and Second-Generation Fiscal Rules (Eyraud, Debrun, Hodge, Lledó, and Pattillo, 2018).
Link to Fiscal Council Dataset (Alonso, Arroyo, Aydin, Balasundharam, Davoodi, Hegab, Lam, Nguyen, Ferro, Sher, Solovyeva, and Tchelishvili, 2025)
(Editor's note: Version 1.0 update on September 25, 2025)
