A Balance Sheet Approach to Fiscal Policy

Between 2001and 2006, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi aggressively tackled Japan s fiscal problems. Koizumi sought smaller government and set clear numerical targets for fiscal consolidation, including a primary budget balance in 10 years.

To offset the negative impact of private sector deleveraging on growth, the US government has maintained expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. Now, with household debt sustained on a knife edge after feverish government intervention, the fiscal position has deteriorated dramatically and the current account balance has worsened again.

The fiscal balance is improving, but it should be carefully managed over the next two years.

The fiscal flexibility of the Fund of UNDCP provided by the existing fund balance was noted.

The right balance today requires creating jobs partly through additional fiscal stimulus aimed at productive infrastructure investment.

Fiscal policy reflects the commitment gradually to reduce public deficits to arrive at a budget in balance.

Acknowledging that recent fiscal policies had put the US on an unsustainable trajectory of rising public debt, Obama said that moving towards budget balance was now essential for fiscal stability. So he called for a five year freeze on what the US government calls discretionary civilian spending.

The number of local government jobs averaged 11,626 in fiscal year 2003, compared to 11,621 jobs in fiscal year 2002.

Sweden and Chile are almost poles apart geographically, but both have used sophisticated fiscal rules successfully. Chile sets a target for its cyclically adjusted fiscal balance that is, the balance that emerges after accounting for the deviations in commodity prices and domestic output from their trends.

Fiscal reform should enhance government legitimacy by paying greater attention to equity.

The Government had introduced tax legislation aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit.

Now facing another 20 billion deficit despite temporary tax hikes and spending cuts, California s fiscal woes foreshadow those of many sub national or, indeed, national governments globally. While all must first deal with the current emergency, sensible local fiscal, tax, and political reforms are vital to restore a balance of centralized and decentralized government.

The news from Greece these days has been dominated by the announcement that the government achieved a primary budget surplus (the fiscal balance minus debt service) in 2013. For the first time in decades, the Greek government has been able to pay for its expenditure with its own revenues.

Unaudited figures for fiscal year 2004 indicated in the fiscal year 2005 budget that the Government estimated that it had collected 58.5 million in local revenues in fiscal year 2004 and predicted that 64 million would be collected in fiscal year 2005.12

The Government was seeking gender balance on statutory boards by the year 2000.

The Government is taking steps to create a balance in appointment of women judges.

This is an indication that the government policy on gender balance is on track.

On balance, then, our Government is sceptical about sanctions as a tool for change.

The Government must strive to reach a reasonable balance of interests on this issue.

That is how the turnaround of the economy took place by reducing the fiscal deficit and converting the external balance of payments from deficit to surplus.

The related expenditures at the end of the fiscal year amounted to 3,946,000 gross and net, resulting in an unencumbered balance of 54,000 gross ( 10,300 net).

The fiscal deficit is higher than 6 of GDP, the trade balance is negative, and public debt albeit lower than in all other European countries except Germany and the Netherlands is nonetheless 80 of GDP. France urgently needs structural reforms and thus a strong government.

Countries can reduce their national debt by narrowing the budget deficit or achieving a primary surplus (the fiscal balance minus interest payments on outstanding debt). This can be accomplished through tax increases, government spending cuts, faster economic growth, or some combination of these components.

Fiscal Challenges and Fiscal Follies

Will the government liberalize interest rates or loosen capital controls? How will the fiscal system be revamped?

China and most of the other emerging Asian economies have strong government balance sheets the GDP shares of their budget deficits and public debt are relatively small. As a result, they have the fiscal firepower to boost consumption in order to mitigate the effects of declining exports.

According to the Minister, all the fiscal targets set by the Government of Anguilla for 2004 were exceeded.

35. Stabilization measures had, on the whole, resolved the hyperinflation, fiscal imbalance and balance of payments problems which had affected those countries at the beginning of the 1990s.

Its member states would accept that monetary union is impossible without fiscal and structural coordination. The minimum fiscal coordination needed would involve automatically implemented national plans, formulated by each government in advance.

The fifth option is to tighten fiscal policy and reduce budget deficits with the aim of lowering the high interest rates that drive the inflows. But sounder fiscal policy might lead to even higher inflows as the country s external balance and sovereign risk outlook improve.

The government will be spending Rs. 161 billion on pro poor expenditures during the current fiscal year 2003 2004.

This means that the fiscal regime must be reformed and simplified and that taxes be paid to the Government.

Most of the funding was sourced from the National Lottery, with the balance funded by the government.

In terms of drawing up a new constitution, the Lebanese principle of government by power sharing must be a central pillar. Beyond the balance of representation in parliament and government, a balance might need to be struck between the highest offices of state.

Spending cuts and tax increases that in the long run restore fiscal sanity and balance are good. Having them all hit a weak, still depressed economy simultaneously is not good.

What this line of research explicitly does not tell us is that deleveraging will restore growth by itself. No one believes that fiscal balance is the whole growth model anywhere.

It was expected that the Government would experience a 67 million revenue shortfall by the end of the fiscal year.

A fiscal crisis in the United States (owing to further political fights over the debt ceiling and another government shutdown).

The Government is experiencing a tighter fiscal environment and this also acts as a disincentive for a new procurement drive.

Countries with weaker initial fiscal positions such as Greece, the UK, Ireland, Spain, and Iceland have been forced by the market to implement early fiscal consolidation. While that could be contractionary, the gain in fiscal policy credibility might prevent a damaging spike in long term government bond yields.

Granting balance of payments support has important fiscal implications, and it is natural that there should be continuing close oversight by those who ultimately provide the capital the IMF s member states.

In 2004, the Government of Guam narrowly avoided a Government shutdown when the Legislature and the Governor experienced a serious impasse on the budget for the fiscal year 2005.

Making sense of these asymmetries is difficult. When financial markets concentrate on the fiscal health of the federal government, they miss the extent of government obligations as a whole.

The Government maintained the necessary fiscal and monetary discipline and endeavoured to rationalize social expenditure while protecting those in greatest need.