Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans

Policy toward fiscal rules is an important issue in the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). According to a rough estimate, the countries with rules (all but North Mace...

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Main Authors:	Kikoni, Edith, Madzarevic-Sujster, Sanja, Irwin, Tim, Jooste, Charl
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:	FISCAL RULES FISCAL POLICY DEBT CEILING DEFICIT CEILING DEBT LIMIT PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY FISCAL GOVERNANCE
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/992481566310183572/Fiscal-Rules-for-the-Western-Balkans http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32315

id	okr-10986-32315
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-323152022-09-20T00:13:44Z Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans Kikoni, Edith Madzarevic-Sujster, Sanja Irwin, Tim Jooste, Charl FISCAL RULES FISCAL POLICY DEBT CEILING DEFICIT CEILING DEBT LIMIT PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY FISCAL GOVERNANCE Policy toward fiscal rules is an important issue in the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). According to a rough estimate, the countries with rules (all but North Macedonia) have complied with their debt and overall-deficit rules a little more than half the time. An online survey, conducted for this paper, suggests that public understanding of the rules is limited, which may reduce the political pressure for compliance. To get debt down to prudent levels, Albania and Montenegro will need a strong commitment to complying with their fiscal rules and will often have to do more than their deficit rules require. The following principles should guide future policy toward fiscal rules: more emphasis should be given to ensuring that fiscal rules are widely understood and enjoy the support of a broad range of stakeholders; policy toward the rules should be consistent with accession to the European Union, but the rules should be simpler than the European Union's and the debt limits lower; limits in rules should not be mistaken for targets; and public financial management should be improved to support the implementation of rules. 2019-08-22T16:42:31Z 2019-08-22T16:42:31Z 2019-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/992481566310183572/Fiscal-Rules-for-the-Western-Balkans http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32315 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8990 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo North Macedonia (Formerly the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) Montenegro Serbia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	FISCAL RULES FISCAL POLICY DEBT CEILING DEFICIT CEILING DEBT LIMIT PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY FISCAL GOVERNANCE
spellingShingle	FISCAL RULES FISCAL POLICY DEBT CEILING DEFICIT CEILING DEBT LIMIT PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY FISCAL GOVERNANCE Kikoni, Edith Madzarevic-Sujster, Sanja Irwin, Tim Jooste, Charl Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo North Macedonia (Formerly the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) Montenegro Serbia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8990
description	Policy toward fiscal rules is an important issue in the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). According to a rough estimate, the countries with rules (all but North Macedonia) have complied with their debt and overall-deficit rules a little more than half the time. An online survey, conducted for this paper, suggests that public understanding of the rules is limited, which may reduce the political pressure for compliance. To get debt down to prudent levels, Albania and Montenegro will need a strong commitment to complying with their fiscal rules and will often have to do more than their deficit rules require. The following principles should guide future policy toward fiscal rules: more emphasis should be given to ensuring that fiscal rules are widely understood and enjoy the support of a broad range of stakeholders; policy toward the rules should be consistent with accession to the European Union, but the rules should be simpler than the European Union's and the debt limits lower; limits in rules should not be mistaken for targets; and public financial management should be improved to support the implementation of rules.
format	Working Paper
author	Kikoni, Edith Madzarevic-Sujster, Sanja Irwin, Tim Jooste, Charl
author_facet	Kikoni, Edith Madzarevic-Sujster, Sanja Irwin, Tim Jooste, Charl
author_sort	Kikoni, Edith
title	Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans
title_short	Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans
title_full	Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans
title_fullStr	Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans
title_full_unstemmed	Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans
title_sort	fiscal rules for the western balkans
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2019
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/992481566310183572/Fiscal-Rules-for-the-Western-Balkans http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32315
_version_	1764476277940551680

Fiscal Rules for the Western Balkans

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