New development: Towards a grand convergence? International proposals for aligning government budgets, accounts and finance statistics

Government responses to recent financial crises have imposed heavy burdens on the public finances of many countries, and exposed weak links between fiscal information sources: budgets, accounts and finance statistics. In order to better understand the causes and effects of financial crises—as well as to predict them early and manage them effectively—the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently proposed a standard for fiscal forecasting. Viewing this alignment proposal as the culmination—a ‘grand convergence’—of earlier attempts at linking and improving these three fields, the authors describe and assess the IMF initiative, and discuss its likely impact.