Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium write by Yu Ching Wong. This book was released on 2023-12-19. Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Belgium is facing higher structural deficits and rising debt after the pandemic and energy crisis. Fiscal consolidation is needed to lower inflation, rebuild buffers, reduce debt, and preserve Belgium’s social contract. While designing an appropriate fiscal consolidation path involves trade-offs, an ideally front-loaded and significant adjustment to achieve a medium-term structural balance would reduce public debt towards the 60 percent debt threshold, significantly reducing vulnerabilities. Experiences in other countries and in the past in Belgium show that while ambitious, such an adjustment is achievable. Comparisons with peers show that rationalizing and increasing the efficiency of social benefits and the public wage bill would need to be at the core of the consolidation effort. All federal entities should share the burden of the adjustment, in a coordinated manner, with accountability at all levels of government, and within a credible and clear multi-year consolidation plan. Comprehensive spending reviews would help target budgetary saving. To mitigate the growth impact in the near term and boost potential growth, public investment should be preserved, and the adjustment should go together with structural reforms to increase labor force participation and productivity.
Belgium
Belgium - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Belgium write by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2011-04-04. Belgium available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Belgium’s impressive past fiscal consolidation is an example for other countries that need to bring down their public debt and also provides insights on how best to address its own current fiscal challenges. Belgium has a unique history of a long and successful large fiscal consolidation. Belgium lived through various episodes of fiscal adjustment and each one of these contains important lessons for future consolidation. After Belgium’s public debt-to-GDP reached a peak of about 135 percent in 1993, it was steadily reduced to about 84 percent by 2007.
Belgium
Belgium - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Belgium write by International Monetary Fund. European Dept.. This book was released on 2020-03-31. Belgium available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This Selected Issues paper analyzes Belgium’s fiscal stance using a structural stochastic model. This note uses a theoretical model that explicitly accounts for the trade-offs between the short-term cost of fiscal tightening and the long-term gains associated with higher fiscal buffers. This paper shows that once the current crisis is over, rebuilding fiscal buffers is essential to helping Belgium confront the next shock from a stronger fiscal position. Overall, this illustrates a major motivation for a credible medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy. When a government reduces debt, it increases its capacity to react to shocks later. This entails a short-term cost that is, in the case of Belgium, worth the effort as this capacity to smooth future shocks increases future welfare. In addition, a large capacity to react with fiscal policy reduces the risk of long-lasting effects of a large crisis. Historical data show that in the past, the Belgium government’s reaction to the cycle was limited to a single event. By contrast, if Belgium could firmly anchor public debt on a downward path, future governments would be able to offset downturns while keeping debt sustainability concerns under control.
Toward a Growth-Friendly Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium
Toward a Growth-Friendly Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Toward a Growth-Friendly Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium write by Jean-Jacques Hallaert. This book was released on 2015. Toward a Growth-Friendly Fiscal Consolidation in Belgium available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Belgium faces two main fiscal challenges that call for a durable fiscal consolidation. First, at above 105 percent of GDP, public debt creates vulnerabilities. Second, the aging population and early access to pension benefits will lead in the medium term to significant fiscal costs. To address these challenges, the government plans to achieve a balanced budget (both headline and structural) by 2018. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether government plans meet the objectives of growth-friendly and sustainable adjustment. It is organized as follows. The first section describes Belgium's record of fiscal consolidation. The second section highlights the features of a high quality fiscal consolidation in Belgium. The third section analyzes the implications of decentralization for fiscal consolidation.
Fiscal Federalism in Belgium: Challenges in Restoring Fiscal Sustainability
Fiscal Federalism in Belgium: Challenges in Restoring Fiscal Sustainability - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Fiscal Federalism in Belgium: Challenges in Restoring Fiscal Sustainability write by Yu Ching Wong. This book was released on 2023-03-02. Fiscal Federalism in Belgium: Challenges in Restoring Fiscal Sustainability available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Fiscal decentralization in Belgium progressed substantially in 2015-19. However, as decentralization of expenditure responsibilities continued to outpace decentralization of revenue authority, vertical fiscal gaps and greater reliance on transfers from shared resources may have reduced spending discipline. Consecutive shocks (pandemic, energy prices) have worsened the fiscal positions of all levels of government, requiring urgent and concerted effort to improve fiscal and debt sustainability. Fostering better fiscal policy coordination across all levels of government would improve the efficiency of Belgium’s decentralized fiscal framework. We recommend that fiscal adjustment at the subnational levels should be a part of the general government fiscal consolidation plan, with strict spending limits applying; integrating systematic spending reviews in the budgetary process; and adopting a more strategic, multi-annual fiscal framework to support adjustment. Implementing the 2013 Cooperation Arrangement—intended to provide fiscal rules to govern and coordinate public finances at all levels—is important. Also, the cost of overborrowing at the regional level should be fully internalized; recalibration of transfers could be considered; and some flexibility should be retained in the pace and scope of further decentralization. Finally, there is scope to improve the integration of fiscal sustainability objectives in federal and subnational structural reforms.
