Fiscal Rules at a Glance: Country Details from a New Dataset

Abstract

This paper provides country-specific information on fiscal rules in use in 81 countries from 1985 to end-September 2012. It serves as background material and update of the July 2012 Working Paper "Fiscal Rules in Response to the Crisis-Toward the 'Next Generation' Rules: A New Dataset" and is also available in an easy accessible electronic data visualization tool (http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/FiscalRules/map/map.htm). The dataset covers four types of rules: budget balance rules, debt rules, expenditure rules, and revenue rules, applying to the central or general government or the public sector. It also presents details on various characteristics of rules, such as their legal basis, coverage, escape clauses, as well as key supporting features such as independent monitoring bodies.

To what extent do fiscal spending rules affect budget composition?

“…9 The number of municipalities subject to the pact has changed since the introduction of the DSP: during the fi rst two years, all municipalities were subject to the DSP, while since 2001 those with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants have been exempt. 10 In order to study the effect of fi scal spending rules, the analysis focuses on the period 2004-2006, as summarised in table 1, comparing municipalities subject to the DSP with those that are exempt. As shown in fi gure 2, from 2005 to 2006, municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants (Group B) slightly decreased the consumption over investment ratio (from 1.75 to 1.73), while an upward trend is found for Group A (from 1.50 to 1.76).…”

Oil, Gas, and Mining: A Sourcebook for Understanding the Extractive Industries

“…5. The typology is used in Budina et al (2012) and in RWI and Vale (2014, 50). There are other kinds of fiscal rule but these are the most common by far.…”

Permanent budget surpluses as a fiscal regime

“…And indeed, many such reforms were introduced in countries where surpluses persisted. Table 3 is based on an IMF study (Budina et al 2012) which catalogued four types of fiscal rules, namely balanced budget rules (BBR), debt rules (DR), expenditure rules (ER) and revenue rules (RR). Unfortunately, this study only covers explicit rules and no other types of institutional reforms, but it is the best comparative effort available.…”

“…BBR = balanced budget rules; ER = expenditure rules; DR = debt rules; RR = revenue rules. Source: Budina et al (2012).…”