Kingdom of Lesotho Public Expenditure Review : Improving Expenditure Efficiency for Inclusive Development and Growth

World Bank

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: PUBLIC EXPENDITURE;    MACROECONOMIC POLICY;    SOCIAL SPENDING;    REVENUE MANAGEMENT;    PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT;   

RP-ID  :  127317

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This Public Expenditure Review (PER) wasprepared in response to a request from the Ministry ofFinance (MoF) and is designed to inform Lesotho’s fiscalconsolidation due to a narrowing of its fiscal space.Lesotho is facing a tough macro-fiscal outlook due to asharp decline in Southern African Customs Union (SACU)revenues. This situation necessitates a significantadjustment in the current fiscal stance to ensurelonger-term fiscal sustainability. However, the adjustmentshould be tailored to minimize any adverse growth andpoverty impacts. Thus, this PER is intended to support thegovernment’s efforts to adjust its policies to betteraddress Lesotho’s current macro-fiscal circumstances.Lesotho is one of the poorest and most unequal countries inthe world, despite a relatively good growth performance overthe past 15 years. Lesotho’s per capita gross nationalincome is about 1550 US dollars. Lesotho’s poverty rate is59 percent (1.90 US dollars purchasing power parity [PPP]per day), its Gini coefficient is 0.541, and about 59percent of the population now lives below the internationalpoverty line of 1.90 dollar/day. Both poverty and extremepoverty disproportionately affect the rural population, andthe bottom 40 percent of Lesotho’s population experienced adecline in consumption each year between 2002 and 2011. Thiscompares to increases, albeit meager, for the remaining 60percent of the population over the same period. Lesotho’sgross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual average rateof 4 percent between 2000 and 2016, whereas its GDP percapita grew at an average rate of 2.8 percent during thesame period. Despite the high level of government spending,Lesotho faces challenges in addressing inclusive growth andproviding access to quality services for the poor, whilealso operating in a highly fragile environment. Afterpolitical turmoil, the new government with a fragilecoalition of 7 parties was established in June 2017. Thegovernment is facing a significant challenge to improvingaccess to and the quality of public services. It is alsoseeking to invigorate the domestic private sector todiversify the growth sources of its economy. The level ofunemployment is very high, with a low employment-toworking-age population ratio, which limits prospects forsocial mobility and poverty reduction.