This technical assistance report on Iceland focuses on a new organic budget law (OBL). In designing a new OBL, it is important to preserve good features of Iceland’s current legal framework for budgeting. At the same time, any new OBL should address the key weaknesses in the Financial...

The Executive Board of the IMF has completed the fifth review of Angola’s economic performance under a program supported by the Stand-By Arrangement. The Board’s decision enables the immediate disbursement of an amount equal to SDR 85.9 million, bringing total disbursements under...

Niger's government has adopted an ambitious development plan, based on the use of oil and mining revenue for public investment in infrastructure, agriculture, health, and education. IMF staff underlined the need to step up efforts to improve the business climate in Niger to attract more jobs,...

Fiscal Responsibility Laws (FRLs) appear to be more popular in middle-income countries than advanced countries, even though their success is limited. The reasons why few advanced countries have a FRL include: the existing legal framework for the budget system is adequate; supranational rules and...

This paper presents, for the first time, multi-dimensional indices of the quality of budget institutions in low-income countries. The indices allow for benchmarking against the performance of middle-income countries, across regions, and according to different institutional arrangements that...

This paper focuses on the Public Financial Management—Performance Report for the Maldives. In line with the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) methodology, the assessment focuses on the fiscal performance during 2005–08, and the institutions and procedures that...

Timor-Leste is a unitary state and has made significant progress with improving its fiscal transparency. The government has adopted a transparent, fiscally sustainable governance framework for the petroleum sector. Nonetheless, there are still many areas in which Timor-Leste diverges from the...

The overarching objective of Bhutan’s Tenth Five-Year Plan (10FYP)—which is also the Royal Government of Bhutan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)—is to sustain this trajectory and reduce poverty further. Political stability, prudent economic management, and...