For as long as governments have existed, so has public financial management (PFM). This approach has always been explicitly designed to ensure the efficiency and transparency of public expenditures, while implicitly aiming to meet the needs of both governments and citizens. It is the combination of PFM’s systems, guidelines and processes that enable governments to […]
EU leniency on Germany’s fiscal plan highlights rule rigidity and the need for reform to support investment. Germany’s July 2025 medium-term fiscal-structural plan exposes the tension between raising public investment in a low-risk country and the requirement in European Union fiscal rules for member state debt to comply with the 60 percent of GDP public […]
Effectively suspended since the onset of the Covid pandemic, the EU fiscal rules were set to make a comeback in 2024. At the same time, the EU was pushing for a major and swift overhaul of its fiscal framework. This column describes how, caught between freedom and responsibility of the transition phase, countries with a […]
Forecasts underpinning budgetary plans have a well-documented impact on fiscal performance especially when policymakers view the world through rosy lenses. Combined with inertia in the implementation phase, optimism contributes to a possible deficit bias and the accumulation of government debt. This column introduces the new Forecast Tracker of the Secretariat of the European Fiscal Board, […]
Why budget reliability matters Accurate revenue and expenditure forecasting is crucial for effective budgeting to ensure that governments can adequately plan for public services, infrastructure projects, and social programs without unexpected shortfalls. When forecasting is not accurate, governments may not be able to achieve fiscal stability and deliver on policy priorities. In this blog, we try […]
