An IMF team found that Panama has a cash-based system of budgeting and accounting that generates good information on many aspects of public finances. There are, however, many weaknesses in the system which diverge from the sound practices included in the Fund's Fiscal Transparency Code. Panama's...

South Africa has many elements of sound fiscal transparency practices. Based on an assessment of fiscal transparency practices against the IMF's Fiscal Transparency Code, South Africa's practices are strongest in fiscal reporting, followed by fiscal forecasting and budgeting, and weakest in...

Canada’s senior governments raise and spend huge amounts, and have legally unlimited capacity to borrow when their expenses exceed their revenues. Holding public officials accountable for their spending, taxing and borrowing is a foundational task in a system of representative government....

This paper evaluates positive and negative media coverage of online local budget transparency (OLBT) and its impact on budget transparency in Croatian local administrative units in 2018. Using multinomial logistic regression, research confirmed a strong impact of media coverage on budget...

This paper examines how fiscal transparency is linked to bank development. It also hypothesizes that the effect is mediated by reasonable channel(s). Drawing upon a panel dataset of emerging and developing economies, we find that fiscal transparency is positively related to the private credit...

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) provide opportunities for a more flexible and market-based provision of public services. At the same time, they may impair fiscal transparency and offer politicians discretion in the presence of strict fiscal rules if these only constrain the core udget. Using a...

1 Introduction -- 2 Back to the Basics of PFM -- 3 New Goals, More Actors: Rethinking the political economy of fiscal institutions -- 4 The evolving and enduring role of finance ministries -- 5 The evolution of budgeting practices -- 6. Evolution of Treasury Practices -- 7 Planning and Budgeting...

The speed, reach, and magnitude of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic sent a shockwave around the globe that tested the capacity of Public Finance Management (PFM) systems to support governments' responses to crises. Fiscal transparency was not a foremost priority for decisionmakers during the...

Canada’s senior governments raise and spend huge amounts, and have legally unlimited capacity to borrow when their expenses exceed their revenues. Holding public officials accountable for their spending, taxing and borrowing is a foundational task in a system of representative government....

This report provides an evaluation of fiscal transparency practices (FTE) in Benin according to the standards defined by the IMF's Fiscal Transparency Code. The evaluation focuses on 36 principles covering three pillars of the Code: (I) fiscal reporting; (II) fiscal forecasting and budgeting;...

Many governments have started issuing 'green' bonds tied to expenditures on projects with environmental objectives such as climate change mitigation. While well-intentioned, issuance of a green bond by an investment-grade sovereign has no environmental impact, leaves funding costs unchanged,...

In July 2023, following a request from the Indian G20 Presidency, the OECD delivered a report making the case for enhanced tax transparency on real estate and setting out a number of conceptual solutions to improve the existing architecture on a voluntary basis. Since then, technical work has...

This century has seen an impressive increase in public access to fiscal information and civic engagement on budget issues. Norms of fiscal transparency have gained ground around the world. Yet many advocates and practitioners in the fiscal transparency and accountability (T/A) field expected...

This chapter analyses the recent modifications to the 2017 OECD Model Tax Convention as regards fiscally transparent entities. The ultimate aim of the Chapter is to determine how these modifications have impacted the dynamic of granting or denying tax treaty benefits and whether these changes...

Nongovernmental stakeholders, including taxpayers and investors of government bonds, have an interest in government financial information. Fiscal transparency entails both access to and understandability of government information. Analyses of a government borrower’s financial information,...

The disclosure of fiscal and economic forecasts represents an increasingly important pillar of government transparency. Yet, a measure of transparency in fiscal and economic forecasts is presently missing. This article exploits the institutional features of the European Union’s (EU) Stability...

This empirical research sheds light on the internal mechanism of government fiscal transparency, media coverage, and the efficiency fiscal expenditures on science & technology (FESTs). Research findings show that fiscal transparency and media coverage have a significant positive effect on the...

Typically, the tax treaty entitlement to fiscally transparent entities (‘FTEs’) has been a matter of debate in the arena of international tax. FTEs are not taxed at the entity level but at the level of the persons who have an ownership interest in that entity. Hands down, it is one of the...

Strong fiscal institutions have contributed to Chile's macroeconomic stability, and recent reform initiatives have focused on enhancing these institutions and fiscal transparency. This report assesses fiscal transparency practices in Chile in relation to the requirements of the IMF's Fiscal...

This paper presents an evaluation index system of public service quality, which contains 35 indexes from the dimensions of the output and effect. Based on data from 2010 to 2017 in 12 coastal provinces and cities of China, this paper assesses public service quality by using the methods of...

This report evaluates Honduras's fiscal transparency practices in relation to the IMF Fiscal Transparency Code (FTC). Honduras's score is similar to those of other Latin American countries and emerging market economies that have undergone the evaluation. In relation to the fiscal transparency...

Reflecting an ongoing commitment to enhancing fiscal transparency, Maldives is the first small island state, and the second country in Asia, to have undertaken a Fiscal Transparency Evaluation (FTE). The Government of the Maldives (GoM) recognizes the importance of transparency in fiscal...

The government of Estonia places a high importance on openness and transparency, both for their citizens and for regional and international partners. This is evidenced from various earlier reports on transparency and the implementation of many subsequent improvements in fiscal transparency...

World experience shows that public participation in the budget process and openness in the public sector are the necessary conditions for a proper economic strategy of the State. Financial openness contributes to the efficient collection and distribution of public resources. It expands the...

This paper explores initiatives to date by the IMF, financial markets, and civil society organizations to assess and utilize information on fiscal transparency. The results of surveys and interviews of rating agency analysts and surveys of civil society organizations on their level of awareness...

The IMF's development of the code of good practices on transparency in monetary and financial policies and introduction of safeguard assessments has increased the importance of the transparency of the disclosures found in central bank financial statements. This study looks at the disclosure...

Current fiscal transparency and reporting practices in India place it behind most peer G20 economies, implying that policy makers are lacking critical data to ground their fiscal and other economic planning decisions. The increasing use of off-budget financing at the central government level in...

Following a request from the Indian G20 Presidency, this report examines the current state of tax transparency concerning foreign-owned real estate. It also explores how recent advancements in other tax transparency frameworks, such as the OECD/G20 Common Reporting Standard, and broader policy...

This paper looks at the contribution of two different initiatives in the fight against corruption in oil-rich developing countries, analysing these in turn and reflecting on ways of enhancing their efficacy and maximising synergies. The role of investigative journalism on the one hand, and that...