In Portugal, a new Local Finance Law was adopted in 2013. The objective was to involve the local governments in the compliance with the supranational fiscal rules imposed by the Stability and Growth Pact and with the national budgetary targets set under the Financial Assistance Program. In this...

This paper identifies the determinants of macroeconomic forecasts (budget balance, public debt and real GDP growth), of the governments of the 15 EU countries. We have used the forecasts of the Stability and Convergence Programmes submitted between 1998/99 and 2008/09 and the European...