Algeria to raise spending despite revenue squeeze

Significance The government has depleted the Fonds de Regulation des Recettes (FRR -- Algeria's oil stabilisation fund) that it set up in 2000 to help finance fiscal deficits, and announced plans to use “unconventional financing”, or direct borrowing from the central bank, to cover the deficit and meet domestic debt obligations during a five-year period of structural reforms, aimed at achieving budget equilibrium. Impacts Unblocking funds for social investment projects such as housing will help to generate growth and jobs in the non-oil sector. The government aims to keep a lid on current spending, and is garnering more non-oil revenue from tax hikes that went into effect in 2017. The projected fiscal deficit will be 9% of GDP in 2018, and the target date for balancing the budget has been extended from 2019 to 2023.

To Bail Out Or Not to Bail Out?—Legal Aspects of the Greek Crisis

Since the precarious state of Greece’s public finances was revealed last October, efforts to save the ‘cradle of Europe’ are in full swing. Hence a huge rescue package for Greece was agreed on in April 2010. This was followed by an even larger EU Stabilisation Fund worth €750 billion for States encountering financial problems. While the economic aspects of these rescue mechanisms have been debated intensively, their legality has escaped closer examination. Rushed through parliaments as an ‘economic emergency’, the peoples of Europe were more or less presented with a ‘fait accompli’. But are these measures really legal under EU law? What about the notorious ‘no bailout’ clause? And what about the alternatives to the rescue packages: Would it have been legal to withdraw from EMU? Or to expel a State from EMU? This chapter will shed some light on these important aspects of EU law.

To Bail Out Or Not to Bail Out?—Legal Aspects of the Greek Crisis

Since the precarious state of Greece’s public finances was revealed last October, efforts to save the ‘cradle of Europe’ are in full swing. Hence a huge rescue package for Greece was agreed on in April 2010. This was followed by an even larger EU Stabilisation Fund worth €750 billion for States encountering financial problems. While the economic aspects of these rescue mechanisms have been debated intensively, their legality has escaped closer examination. Rushed through parliaments as an ‘economic emergency’, the peoples of Europe were more or less presented with a ‘fait accompli’. But are these measures really legal under EU law? What about the notorious ‘no bailout’ clause? And what about the alternatives to the rescue packages: Would it have been legal to withdraw from EMU? Or to expel a State from EMU? This chapter will shed some light on these important aspects of EU law.

Government Revenue Stabilisation in Primary-Producing Countries: a Model for Zambia

A common problem in primary-producing countries is that commodity price instability causes substantial variation in government revenues. A conceptually simple yet rarely used domestic policy measure intended to smooth annual fiscal receipts is the establishment of a development stabilisation fund. The need for such a fund in Zambia and its modus operandi are discussed in the context of a review of budgetary performance since 1965. A simulation suggests that substantial smoothing could be achieved, but that the fund could not overcome a prolonged depression of copper prices such as occurred in the years after 1975.