Over the first years of this century, Germany’s public finances developed very unfavourably. Significant pressures to reduce the overall budget deficit emerged. However, not least given the budgetary autonomy of the individual federal states and their influence on federal legislation, for...

Fiscal analysis requires a set of indicators. For calculating the structural deficit, it is examined whether measures have permanent or temporary budgetary impacts, if any (creative accounting). For measuring fiscal impulse, it is examined when a given measure has a ‘true’ economic impact,...

Lump sum payments in compensation for the transfer to the Government of pension liabilities are one of the main categories of one-off budgetary measures that have developed in Europe over the recent years. These operations have been the most frequent in France, because of the various special...

In this paper we examine the effects of temporary measures on the Italian budget in the period 1997-2006 and assess their appropriateness. We also analyse the role of extraordinary operations which reduced the level of public debt in the same time frame while leaving the net worth of the public...

This paper reviews how central banks in emerging market countries assess fiscal positions, and discusses two aspects of fiscal transparency that have recently gained importance from central banks’ perspective: off-budget activities and special fiscal funds. By increasing uncertainty about the...

Public enterprises may play an important role in government finances and pose substantial fiscal risks. However, these risks are not always adequately reflected in the fiscal accounts. This hampers the transparent assessment of the fiscal stance, provides incentives to move fiscal activities off...

In this paper we present an analysis of the informative content of available public sector data for Central, State (Regional) and Local Governments in Spain. We first review the framework that defines budgetary arrangements in place in Spain, with a special emphasis on the decentralization...