Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Reforming the EU Fiscal Framework
The EU’s fiscal framework needs reform. While existing fiscal rules have had some impact in constraining deficits, they did not prevent deficits and debt ratios that have threatened the stability of the monetary union in the past and that continue to create vulnerabilities today. The framework also has a poor track record at managing trade-offs between containing fiscal risks and stabilizing output. Finally, the framework does not provide sufficient tools for EU-wide stabilization. This was most visible during the decade following the euro area sovereign debt crisis, when structurally low real interest rates stretched the policy tools of the European Central Bank (ECB), leading to a persis...
A Note of Caution on the Relation Between Money Growth and Inflation
We assess the bivariate relation between money growth and inflation in the euro area and the United States using hybrid time-varying parameter Bayesian VAR models. Model selection based on marginal likelihoods suggests that the relation is statistically unstable across time in both regions. The effect of money growth on inflation weakened notably after the 1980s before strengthening after 2020. There is evidence that this time variation is related to the pace of price changes, as we find that the maximum impact of money growth on inflation is increasing in the trend level of inflation. These results caution against asserting a simple, time-invariant relationship when modeling the joint dynamics of monetary aggregates and consumer prices.
Regional Economic Outlook: Europe
The war in Ukraine is taking a growing toll on Europe’s economies. The worsening energy crisis has depressed households’ purchasing power and raised firms’ costs, only partly offset by new government support. Central banks in the region and the world are acting more forcefully to bring high and persistent inflation down to targets, and global financial conditions have tightened. European policymakers are facing severe trade-offs and tough policy choices. A tightening macroeconomic policy stance is needed to bring down inflation, while helping vulnerable households and viable firms weather the energy crisis. But policies need to stay nimble and agile and adjust should additional shocks materialize.
Republic of Serbia
The economy has navigated the COVID-19 pandemic well. In 2021, real GDP growth strongly rebounded by 7.4 percent, supporting a narrower fiscal deficit of 4.1 percent of GDP and a decline in the public debt ratio, and consistent with a return to pre-pandemic medium-term trend growth.
Who Bore the Brunt of the Pandemic in Europe? Shifting Private Stress to the Public Sector
In Europe, the severe human toll of the COVID-19 pandemic was compounded by the deepest fall in economic activity in modern history. Yet this huge decline in output did surprisingly little damage to the aggregate financial balance sheets of firms and households. This paper discusses how unprecedented policy support transferred private sector income losses to the public sector’s balance sheet and contrasts this experience to that of the global financial crisis.
How to Set Compensation for Government Employees
Government compensation-setting should be informed by the monitoring of trends in recruitment and retention and benchmarking against the private sector. Unduly high compensation is an inefficient use of resources, while insufficient compensation can hinder efforts to recruit, retain, and motivate the workforce needed to deliver adequate public services. Analyzing these factors at a granular level, for example, by occupation or position, can help to identify specific challenges.
Republic of Serbia
Serbia has made impressive economic gains over much of the past decade: living standards improved, inflation fell, public finances were strengthened, and reserves increased, helped by ample foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. But spillovers from the war in Ukraine—especially the sharp increase in international energy prices—and deep-rooted problems in Serbia’s energy sector that came to a head last year, led to large external and fiscal financing needs, prompting the authorities to request a Fund-supported Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). Fiscal and external outturns for 2022 were both better than expected, and unemployment remains low. Record FDI inflows continue to drive reserves higher. But inflation remains a pressing challenge. Led by high food and energy prices, headline inflation is now well above the National Bank of Serbia’s (NBS’s) target band and core inflation has also increased sharply. Fiscal policy is expected to remain relatively tight in 2023, despite additional mid-year spending measures. Deep structural problems persist in the energy sector and are a key focus of the SBA. Long-standing geopolitical challenges remain.
Turkmenistan
This paper reviews economic developments in Turkmenistan during 1996–99. Inflation is an issue in Turkmenistan. The trend decline that started in mid-1996 came to a halt in late 1998 and inflation continued to increase in 1999. By mid-1999, 12-month inflation had increased to 25 percent. Owing to payment problems, gas exports to Ukraine were discontinued in early 1997, resulting in a sharp decline in real GDP in that year. In 1998, gas exports did not resume, other than small deliveries to Iran through a new pipeline that had become operational at end-1997.
Republic of Estonia
This Technical Assistance Report on the Republic of Estonia highlights that public investment is a priority spending area, and Estonia is seeking to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of its capital expenditure from an already high level. Estonia’s public investment is relatively efficient, while further improvements should pay attention to the quality of public services enabled by them. Investment implementation is particularly strong. This reflects Estonia’s open procurement framework that utilizes an advanced e-procurement system, its modern treasury that employs an effective Treasury Single Account system to guarantee cash availability, asset monitoring that has been made ro...
Voluntary Disclosure Programs — Design, Principles, and Implementation Considerations
This note explores the conditions, design elements, and implementation considerations of a successful voluntary disclosure program (VDP), including its compliance with anti–money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) international standards. The note emphasizes that such a program must be offered in the context of a considerably strengthened and credible enforcement capacity—one that is explicitly publicized to taxpayers—to avoid undermining tax morale.
