Fiscal Challenges after the Global Financial Crisis : A Survey of Key Issues

Lopez-Claros, Augusto

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    ACCOUNTING;    ADVANCED ECONOMIES;    ASSET POSITION;    BAILOUT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6805
RP-ID  :  WPS6805

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The global financial crisis and theresponse to it have contributed to a sharp increase inpublic indebtedness in a large number of countries. Whilethere have been episodes of high debt in the past, there area number of long-term challenges today that are likely tocomplicate the implementation of sustainable fiscal policiesin the coming years. Population aging and climate change arefactors that are likely to contribute to rising fiscalpressures and the crisis has highlighted the risks andvulnerabilities stemming from reduced fiscal space. Thispaper argues that heightened fiscal challenges can only bedealt with successfully by adopting a long-term fiscalplanning horizon. The paper analyzes a range of availablepolicy tools that countries have used in the past to improvefiscal management. Particular attention is paid to the roleof rules-based policies, improvements in the budget process,better accounting of long-term liabilities in the governmentbudget, the deleterious effects of unproductiveexpenditures, and the painful trade-offs created by thecrisis and the toolkit at hand to address them.