Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth

This document reviews Nicaragua's development agenda from a growth perspective. That focus emerges from the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which traces the widespread poverty observed in Nicaragua, to the collapse of t...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Country Economic Memorandum
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5597923/nicaragua-development-policy-review-sustaining-broad-based-growth
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14567
id okr-10986-14567
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-145672021-04-23T14:03:18Z Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth World Bank MACROECONOMIC PLANNING DEVELOPMENT POLICY & PLANNING GROWTH POLICY REFORM POLICY FISCAL CONSTRAINTS LEGAL REFORMS SOCIAL SECTOR REFORM EDUCATION SECTOR HEALTH CARE POLICY PENSION REFORM PUBLIC SPENDING CAPACITY BUILDING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT COMMODITIES This document reviews Nicaragua's development agenda from a growth perspective. That focus emerges from the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which traces the widespread poverty observed in Nicaragua, to the collapse of the 1980s, and considers a continued, broadly-based economic recovery as the best way to eliminate it. The focus on growth guides the review of policy developments in various economic, social, and infrastructure sectors. The Development Policy Review (DPR) has the objective of providing analytical underpinnings, both for the Government in developing and refining its growth strategy, and the Bank and other donors, in designing their assistance programs for Nicaragua. The macroeconomic program agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeks to promote sustained growth, and poverty reduction in a stable manner, by connecting the country's large fiscal, and external imbalances, addressing key vulnerabilities, and removing long-standing barriers to growth. Key focal points of the program are measures to improve governance, and accountability in the public, private sectors, rein in sustainable government spending, raise the tax effort, and strengthen the banking sector. On the structural front, significant advances were made in 2002 in education and health, including strengthening of the public sector management, through an integrated financial management system, and other important reforms. However, key macroeconomic challenges outline the country's continuing dependence on a few primary commodity exports and aid, both of which have contributed significantly to the high level of economic volatility. A second issue concerns the sustainability of Nicaragua's macroeconomic framework, a weak spot in policymaking, deserving careful attention. To address shortcomings, the report suggests accompanying the Fiscal Transfers Law with additional measures, or legislation that 1) defines the spending responsibilities; 2) strengthens project planning and executing capacities of the weaker municipalities; and, 3) establishes appropriate accountability, and financial management mechanisms. In addition, the pension reform initiated in the mid-1990s, seeks to replace the current defined-benefit, pay-as-you-go system, by a defined-contribution system. The status of the pension reform is being reviewed, reassessing its fiscal costs with assistance form the Bank. 2013-07-25T14:54:14Z 2013-07-25T14:54:14Z 2004-12-03 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5597923/nicaragua-development-policy-review-sustaining-broad-based-growth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14567 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Country Economic Memorandum Economic & Sector Work Latin America & Caribbean Nicaragua
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic MACROECONOMIC PLANNING
DEVELOPMENT POLICY & PLANNING
GROWTH POLICY
REFORM POLICY
FISCAL CONSTRAINTS
LEGAL REFORMS
SOCIAL SECTOR REFORM
EDUCATION SECTOR
HEALTH CARE POLICY
PENSION REFORM
PUBLIC SPENDING
CAPACITY BUILDING
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
COMMODITIES
spellingShingle MACROECONOMIC PLANNING
DEVELOPMENT POLICY & PLANNING
GROWTH POLICY
REFORM POLICY
FISCAL CONSTRAINTS
LEGAL REFORMS
SOCIAL SECTOR REFORM
EDUCATION SECTOR
HEALTH CARE POLICY
PENSION REFORM
PUBLIC SPENDING
CAPACITY BUILDING
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
COMMODITIES
World Bank
Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Nicaragua
description This document reviews Nicaragua's development agenda from a growth perspective. That focus emerges from the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which traces the widespread poverty observed in Nicaragua, to the collapse of the 1980s, and considers a continued, broadly-based economic recovery as the best way to eliminate it. The focus on growth guides the review of policy developments in various economic, social, and infrastructure sectors. The Development Policy Review (DPR) has the objective of providing analytical underpinnings, both for the Government in developing and refining its growth strategy, and the Bank and other donors, in designing their assistance programs for Nicaragua. The macroeconomic program agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeks to promote sustained growth, and poverty reduction in a stable manner, by connecting the country's large fiscal, and external imbalances, addressing key vulnerabilities, and removing long-standing barriers to growth. Key focal points of the program are measures to improve governance, and accountability in the public, private sectors, rein in sustainable government spending, raise the tax effort, and strengthen the banking sector. On the structural front, significant advances were made in 2002 in education and health, including strengthening of the public sector management, through an integrated financial management system, and other important reforms. However, key macroeconomic challenges outline the country's continuing dependence on a few primary commodity exports and aid, both of which have contributed significantly to the high level of economic volatility. A second issue concerns the sustainability of Nicaragua's macroeconomic framework, a weak spot in policymaking, deserving careful attention. To address shortcomings, the report suggests accompanying the Fiscal Transfers Law with additional measures, or legislation that 1) defines the spending responsibilities; 2) strengthens project planning and executing capacities of the weaker municipalities; and, 3) establishes appropriate accountability, and financial management mechanisms. In addition, the pension reform initiated in the mid-1990s, seeks to replace the current defined-benefit, pay-as-you-go system, by a defined-contribution system. The status of the pension reform is being reviewed, reassessing its fiscal costs with assistance form the Bank.
format Economic & Sector Work :: Country Economic Memorandum
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth
title_short Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth
title_full Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth
title_fullStr Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth
title_full_unstemmed Nicaragua - Development Policy Review : Sustaining Broad-Based Growth
title_sort nicaragua - development policy review : sustaining broad-based growth
publisher Washington, DC
publishDate 2013
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5597923/nicaragua-development-policy-review-sustaining-broad-based-growth
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14567
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