Download or read book Cyclicality of Revenue and Structural Balances in South Africa written by Burcu Aydin and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper applies a disaggregated method for the calculation of the cyclical component of the budget balance for South Africa with an emphasis on the effect of commodity and asset prices, and credit cycle. Results show that the cyclicality of tax revenue is mostly explained by the variations in tax bases. Change in the credit to private sector also has some affect on the revenue performance; however, asset and commodity prices are not significant in explaining the deviation of revenue from its trend. Nonetheless, quantitative effects of these prices are subject to assumptions used for long-run price levels.
Download or read book When and How to Adjust Beyond the Business Cycle A Guide to Structural Fiscal Balances written by Fabian Bornhorst and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2011-04-11 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technical Notes and Manuals are produced by IMF departments to expand the dissemination of their technical assistance advice. These papers present general advice and guidance, drawn in part from unpublished technical assistance reports, to a broader audience. This new series was launched in August 2009.
Download or read book Business Cycles and Structural Change in South Africa written by Willem H. Boshoff and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-20 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the South African business cycle and its links to structural change in the economy. Against the backdrop of the democratic transition in 1994 and the global financial crisis, the authors study how business cycles in South Africa have changed and how cycles are related to key developments in the financial markets, international trade and business sentiment in the country. By focusing on peaks and troughs in economic activity – so-called ‘turning-point cycles’ – the book links up with the common approach of international policymakers to studying fluctuations in economic activity. The authors also introduce new approaches to measuring phases of the business cycle (to understand slow recoveries after the global crisis), provide comprehensive descriptions to complement quantitative analyses, and utilize new data sources that allow the measurement of economic activity over longer periods. As such, the book provides the first integrated overview of business cycles in an emerging market, providing academics and policymakers with a better understanding of the measurement challenges and drivers of the cycle.
Download or read book Performance of Fiscal Accounts in South Africa in a Cross Country Setting written by Burcu Aydin and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper analyzes the cyclical fluctuations in South Africa in a cross-country context, and studies the impact of the output gap by controlling for export intensity, the debt burden, asset prices, and banking crises. Results show that South Africa’s revenue performance was outstanding during the mid-2000s, and the recent decline in revenue was one of the least among the emerging and advanced markets. Results on the elasticity of tax revenue show that South Africa’s elasticity is higher during business upturns, indicating good prospects for recovering the revenue lost during the global financial crisis.
Download or read book South Africa written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global financial crisis had a much more pronounced impact on South Africa relative to some other large emerging markets. The overriding economic policy challenge is to reduce unemployment and inequality through higher economic growth. Unemployment is a key policy focus; and a wage subsidy aimed at younger unskilled workers, as well as other policy options, are under discussion. IMF staff broadly concur with the authorities’ approach, and believe that the current fiscal plan strikes the right balance between supporting the recovery through sustained infrastructure investment while ensuring fiscal sustainability.
Download or read book Fiscal Rules written by Mr.Jiro Honda and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, Lesotho and Swaziland have faced significant volatility in their fiscal revenues, owing to highly unstable Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts. Based on model analysis, this paper explores the advantages of implementing fiscal rules to deal with such volatility. It finds that the use of a structural balance target could smooth the growth impact from revenue shocks while helping preserve sufficient international reserves during bad times. From a long-term perspective, it suggests possible welfare gains from introducing fiscal rules. Last, it concludes that, based on experiences in other countries, developing strong institutions and improving public financial management are necessary steps to ease the transitions to a rules-based fiscal policy framework.
Download or read book Mobilizing Revenue in Sub Saharan Africa written by Mr.Paulo Drummond and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mobilizing more revenue is a priority for sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Countries have to finance their development agendas, and weak revenue mobilization is the root cause of fiscal imbalances in several countries. This paper reviews the experience of low-income SSA countries in mobilizing revenue in recent decades, with two broad aims: identify empirical norms of how much and how fast countries have been able to mobilize more revenue and empirical determinants (panel estimates) of revenue mobilization. The paper finds that (i) the frequency distribution of changes in revenue ratios for SSA low-income countries (LICs) peaks at a pace of about 1⁄2-2 percentage points of GDP in the short-to-medium term and at a pace of about 2-31⁄2 percentage points of GDP over the longer term, and that (ii) almost all SSA-LICs managed to increase revenue ratios by more than 2 percentage points of GDP in the short-to-medium term, at least once in the last two decades. The sustainability of large increases in revenue ratios can be an issue, in particular for fragile countries. The panel estimates suggest that structural factors, such as per capita GDP, share of agriculture in GDP, inflation, degree of openness, and rents received from natural resources, are important determinants of tax revenue.
Download or read book South Africa written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1997-10-03 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Selected Issues paper highlights that aided by the easing of political uncertainties after the national elections in early 1994 and by the cautious stance of policies adopted by the new administration, economic performance and investor sentiment in South Africa strengthened markedly. Nonagricultural value-added grew by 4 percent in 1995, led by a sharp increase in real gross private fixed investment. In contrast, developments in 1996 were characterized by a shift in investor sentiment and unrest in the foreign exchange markets.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook April 2016 Sub Saharan Africa written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole has fallen to its lowest level in 15 years, though with large variation among countries in the region. The sharp decline in commodity prices has severely strained many of the largest economies, including oil exporters Angola and Nigeria, and other commodity exporters, such as Ghana, South Africa, and Zambia. At the same time, the decline in oil prices has helped other countries continue to show robust growth, including Kenya and Senegal. A strong policy response to the terms-of-trade shocks is critical and urgent in many countries. This report also examines sub-Saharan Africa’s vulnerability to commodity price shocks, and documents the substantial progress made in financial develop, especially financial services based on mobile technologies.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook April 2017 Sub Saharan Africa written by Céline Allard and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growth momentum in sub-Saharan Africa remains fragile, marking a break from the rapid expansion witnessed since the turn of the millennium. 2016 was a difficult year for many countries, with regional growth dipping to 1.4 percent—the lowest level of growth in more than two decades. Most oil exporters were in recession, and conditions in other resource-intensive countries remained difficult. Other nonresource-intensive countries however, continued to grow robustly. A modest recovery in growth of about 2.6 percent is expected in 2017, but this falls short of past trends and is too low to put sub-Saharan Africa back on a path of rising living standards. While sub-Saharan Africa remains a region with tremendous growth potential, the deterioration in the overall outlook partly reflects insufficient policy adjustment. In that context, and to reap this potential, strong and sound domestic policy measures are needed to restart the growth engine.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook April 2014 Sub Saharan Africa written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The five Regional Economic Outlooks published biannually by the IMF cover Asia and Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In each volume, recent economic developments and prospects for the region are discussed as a whole, as well as for specific countries. The reports include key data for countries in the region. Each report focuses on policy developments that have affected economic performance in the region, and discusses key challenges faced by policymakers. The near-term outlook, key risks, and their related policy challenges are analyzed throughout the reports, and current issues are explored, such as when and how to withdraw public interventions in financial systems globally while maintaining a still-fragile economic recovery.These indispensable surveys are the product of comprehensive intradepartmental reviews of economic developments that draw primarily on information the IMF staff gathers through consultation with member countries.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook April 2015 Sub Saharan Africa written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sharp decline in oil and other commodity prices have adversely impacted sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, the region is projected to register another year of solid economic performance. In South Africa, however, growth is expected to remain lackluster, while in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone the Ebola outbreak continues to exact a heavy economic and social toll. This report also considers how sub-Saharan Africa can harness the demographic dividend from an unprecedented increase in the working age population, as well as the strength of the region's integration into global value chains.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook May 2013 Sub Saharan Africa written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-05-22 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growth remained strong in the region in 2012, with regional GDP rates increasing in most countries (excluding Nigeria and South Africa). Projections point to a moderate, broad-based acceleration in growth to around 51⁄2 percent in 2013¬14, reflecting a gradually strengthening global economy and robust domestic demand. Investment in export-oriented sectors remains an important economic driver, and an agriculture rebound in drought-affected areas will also help growth. Uncertainties in the global economy are the main risk to the region’s outlook, but plausible adverse shocks would likely not have a large effect on the region’s overall performance.
Download or read book Post Apartheid South Africa written by Mr.M. Nowak and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2006-01-12 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive review of recent economic developments in South Africa and the structural and policy challenges facing the authorities. Individual papers examine a range of topics such as unemployment and the labor market, recent trends in the private saving rate, the role of foreign direct investment in the development of South Africa’s economy, the human and economic repercussions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the role of fiscal policy in economic stabilization, inflation developments, liberalization of trade and capital transactions, exchange rate developments, and lessons from the rand crises of 1998 and 2001.
Download or read book Fiscal Policy and Long Term Growth written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-04-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper explores how fiscal policy can affect medium- to long-term growth. It identifies the main channels through which fiscal policy can influence growth and distills practical lessons for policymakers. The particular mix of policy measures, however, will depend on country-specific conditions, capacities, and preferences. The paper draws on the Fund’s extensive technical assistance on fiscal reforms as well as several analytical studies, including a novel approach for country studies, a statistical analysis of growth accelerations following fiscal reforms, and simulations of an endogenous growth model.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook October 2017 Sub Saharan Africa written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-11-27 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Growth in sub-Saharan Africa has recovered relative to 2016, but the momentum is weak and per capita incomes are expected to barely increase. Further, vulnerabilities have risen in many countries, adding to the urgency of implementing the fiscal consolidations planned in most countries and with stepped up efforts to strengthen growth.
Download or read book Regional Economic Outlook October 2010 Sub Saharan Africa written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-10-25 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The October 2010 Regional Economic Outlook features: (i) an overview of economic developments and prospects in sub-Saharan Africa; (ii) an analytical assessment of how monetary policy changes are transmitted through the region's economies; and (iii) a study of why growth rates in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) have lagged behind other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The overview highlights the broad-based economic recovery that is now under way in sub-Saharan Africa and projects growth of 5 percent in 2010 and 51⁄2 percent in 2011. It explores the resilience of most economies in the region to the global financial crises of 2007-09 and explains why sound economic policy implementation and a growing orientation of trade toward Emerging Asia are expected to continue to underpin growth. The second chapter provides evidence suggesting that monetary policy may have more power to influence monetary conditions than previously assumed. Main messages from the WAEMU study are the importance of strong policy environments and political stability for achieving sustained growth; and of robust fiscal frameworks for directing resources towards priority spending needs.
