The exception proves the rule? Fiscal rules in the Visegrád countries

This article gives an overview of the national fiscal rules in force or recommended for introduction in the Visegrád countries. In the article, we review the various potential elements of the regulation framework, in particular the debt rule as a limit, the balance target, the expenditure rule as an instrument and the fiscal council as a supporting entity for the entire framework. We establish on the one hand that the more a rule covers the scope of fiscal policy, the more effective it becomes. On the other hand, it is highlighted that filtering out the effect of exogenous factors – such as the economic cycle – is also important in ensuring that the rules restrict fiscal policy in such a way as to simultaneously prevent procyclical measures. The difficulty resides in the fact that the effects of exogenous factors and fiscal policy are difficult to distinguish. Resolving this issue may be one of the tasks of the fiscal council.