Publication: Saint Kitts and Nevis - OECS Fiscal Issues : Policies to Achieve Fiscal Sustainability and Improve Efficiency and Equity of Public Expenditures
Loading...
Published
2003-12-29
ISSN
Date
2013-07-25
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Despite high levels of per capita incomes and good social service provision, poverty remains a persistent problem in St. Kitts and Nevis. To improve competitiveness, restore rapid economic growth, and ensure its medium-term sustainability in the context of the currency union, the main challenges to the St. Kitts and Nevis government are to (a) tighten fiscal policy, notably through expenditure cuts; (b) increase the efficiency of public investments and public service delivery; (c) strengthen regulation and efficiency of public utilities and sea/air transport; and (d) promote education and skills development to prepare the population, notably the poor, to take advantage of new opportunities in the global environment. The report is organized as follows: Chapter 1 discusses fiscal sustainability in St. Kitts and Nevis and presents options for fiscal consolidation; Chapter 2 discusses the role of the business cycle in the design of fiscal policy by reviewing the cyclical components of the fiscal accounts; Chapter 3 discusses the budget management system in place and its effect on budgetary outcomes; Chapter 4 examines the Public Sector Investment Program; Chapter 5 discusses public sector employment and compensation; Chapters 6 and 7 examine public expenditures and outcomes in the education and health sectors; and Chapter 8, the final chapter, discusses social protection programs.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2003. Saint Kitts and Nevis - OECS Fiscal Issues : Policies to Achieve Fiscal Sustainability and Improve Efficiency and Equity of Public Expenditures. Public expenditure review (PER);. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14578 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Grenada, OECS Fiscal Issues : Policies to Achieve Fiscal Sustainability and Improve Efficiency and Equity of Public Expenditures(Washington, DC, 2004-10-25)The report reviews Grenada public expenditures for the period 1995-02 and suggests policy recommendations to achieve fiscal sustainability, improve social service delivery, and reform social protection based on the economic situation of the country at the time. To restore rapid economic growth, ensure medium-term fiscal sustainability under the umbrella of the currency union and protect the social achievements realized in the past decades, the main challenges facing the Grenada government are to: (a) tighten fiscal policy, notably through reduction of capital expenditures and the realization of the fiscal savings expected from the public sector reform initiated in 1997 (b) increase the efficiency of public investments and public service delivery; (c) strengthen regulation and efficiency of public utilities and sea/air transport; (d) modernize the legal framework that oversees public sector employment; and (e) promote education and skills development to prepare the population, notably the poor, to take advantage of new opportunities in the global environment. The report is organized as follows: Chapter 1 discusses fiscal sustainability in Grenada and presents options for fiscal consolidation; Chapter 2 discusses the role of the business cycle in the design of fiscal policy by reviewing the cyclical components of the fiscal accounts; Chapter 3 discusses the budget management system in place and its effect on budgetary outcomes. Chapter 4 examines the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP); Chapter 5 discusses public sector employment and compensation issues; Chapters 6 and 7 examine public expenditures and outcomes in the education and health sectors; and Chapter 8 discusses social protection programs. Since the completion of the report, Grenada has undertaken a number of important initiatives to address the fiscal challenges that the country faces, especially in the aftermath of Hurricanes Ivan and Emily. In particular, the authorities have developed a "burden-sharing" strategy to achieve fiscal sustainability. However in Grenada, as in all small states, faster implementation is hindered by limited institutional capacity.Publication Saint Vincent and the Grenadines : OECS Fiscal Issues, Policies to Achieve Fiscal Sustainability and Improve Efficiency and Equity of Public Expenditures(Washington, DC, 2005-05)The central theme of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Fiscal Issues report, the first Public Expenditure Review conducted by the World Bank in this country, is that in order to restore rapid economic growth, ensure medium-term fiscal sustainability under the umbrella of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and protect the social achievements realized in the past decades, the country will best benefit from: (a) tightening fiscal policy, mostly through expenditure cuts; (b) an increase in the efficiency of public investments and public service delivery; (c) strengthening regulation and efficiency of public utilities and sea/air transport; and (d) promoting education and skills development to prepare the population, notably the poor, to take advantage of new opportunities in the global environment.Publication Fiscal Rules and the Pro-Cycylicality of Public Investment in the West African Economic and Monetary Union(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-08)Evidence from a large panel of low-income and lower middle-income countries over the period 1995–2012 suggests that, contrary to other countries, public investment in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) has been pro-cyclical. Public investment contracts more in “bad times” than it increases in “good times” and appears to have become pro-cyclical since the introduction of the fiscal convergence criteria in 1994. The pro-cyclicality of public expenditure and the high asymmetry of shocks that affect WAEMU countries justify exploring options for greater counter-cyclicality of rules-based fiscal frameworks and for risk-sharing.Publication Pro-cyclical Fiscal Policy in Brazil : Evidence from the States(2009-12-01)The empirical literature on budget cyclicality has generally focused more on assessing the degree of pro-cyclicality in federal (central government) revenues and expenditures and less on budget cyclicality at the sub-national level in multi-tiered systems. This paper attempts to contribute to the literature on budget cyclicality by examining how sub-national fiscal revenues and expenditures are linked to the business cycle in Brazil, particularly after the introduction of the Fiscal Responsibility Law. It explains the degree of pro-cyclicality across Brazilian states, and assesses whether intergovernmental transfers help to stabilize states finances. These issues are addressed using both a time-series and a cross-section dimension at the Brazilian state level for the period 1991-2006. The empirical evidence suggests the existence of a pro-cyclical fiscal policy in Brazil at the state level. However, the introduction of the Fiscal Responsibility Law helped to reduce Brazilian states spending-side pro-cyclicality. For the Brazilian states, the main source of the observed pro-cyclicality is found in the behavior of tax revenues directly collected by the state governments. Intergovernmental transfers (federal transfers to the states) are not associated with changes in gross state product, but they are pro-cyclically aligned with national gross domestic product, which could amplify the pro-cyclical behavior of sub-national expenditures.Publication Fiscal Responsibility Framework in Croatia : Lessons from the Past, Rules for the Future(Washington, DC, 2011-07)The Croatian Parliament enacted the Fiscal Responsibility Law (FRL) in November 2010. The law is designed to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability, fiscal discipline, and transparency, which have so far not been successfully enforced in previous legislation. The purpose of this note is to (i) review efforts to enhance fiscal management and stability in Croatia; (ii) present relevant international experience; and (iii) make recommendations for improving the FRL. The key recommendations stemming from the review of the law are the following: a) the temporary fiscal rule that the authorities plan first is appropriate. It calls for expenditure-based consolidation with clear annual spending reduction targets because revenue generation cannot be counted on to balance the budget over the medium term. The rule should be in place until the general government balance is reached because it would help reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio; b) setting up a legally and effectively independent authority to transparently monitor compliance with all elements of the fiscal responsibility framework, especially the fiscal rule, the three-year budget plan, and fiscal forecasts, is highly recommended; c) if the fiscal rule is to be effective, it should be supported by meaningful and enforceable sanctions; and d) also, the FRL should bind not only the current government and parliament but also future ones. Thus, as some other countries have done, the authorities could have considered enacting the FRL as an organic law with a two-thirds majority.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.