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The annual fiscal budget of any economy gives projections about key economic indicators. Forecasts of these key variables are often at variance with actual realisations at the end of the fiscal year, thereby inducing animal spirits in Sub-Saharan Africa. Past studies focused on the roles of budget institutions and considered only two indicators of budget institutions- centralization and rules and control, thereby ignoring other indicators- transparency, comprehensiveness, and credibility and sustainability indices. This study therefore investigated the roles of budget institutions on macro-fiscal forecast errors, using all existing indicators of budget institutions in SSA. This study was based on rational expectations theory. Empirical models were formulated for growth, inflation, and fiscal balance forecast errors. A panel of data that spanned 2006 to 2021 for 43 countries was gathered. Forecast values were estimated from country’s annual budget speeches, World Development Indicators and Fiscal Space Database. Indices of various indicators of budget institutions were constructed using information from the Collaborative African Budget Reforms Initiative (CABRI), Open Budget Index of the International Business Partnership (IBP) and Public Expenditure and Financial Analysis (PEFA). The models were estimated using GMM System) estimation technique. Estimated results show that only budget procedural rules and credibility and sustainability indices have significant and negative effect on fiscal balance forecast error. No evidence was found that growth and inflation forecast errors were influenced by budget institutions. The implication of this finding is that fiscal budgets based on established procedures and with some level of credibility and sustainability matter for reducing fiscal balance forecast error.

In this research, the intertemporal optimal management of subsidies offered by the environmental regulator and the dynamic conflict between two groups of economic agents involved in environmental quality are discussed. First the environmental model is examined in its optimal control management form with two state variables. The analysis of the improved model, inspecting the social planner's decision (policy) variable, the variable which influences not only environmental quality but the national budget stock, reveals that is dependent on the growth of the national budget stock. A negative growth rate leads to the long run saddle point equilibrium, while an incremental growth rate, but less than the model's discount rate, leads to an interesting complicated limit cycle equilibrium, for which under certain parameter values the orbit's phase portrait can be drawn. For the dynamic game model between the social planner and natural resource exploiters, the equilibrium conditions are examined. It is rather a richer than the point equilibrium for which the cyclical strategies have great importance. Therefore, the conditions for that rich equilibrium are found. As a continuation, the paper concludes that the equilibrium condition is that the players' discount rates are both greater than the national budget interest rate. Finally, the certain values of the equilibrium strategies and national budget stock are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-Covid-19 global economic landscape has yielded complex challenges. Given bleaker global growth prospects, moderating commodity prices and a higher cost of borrowing, the Indonesian government took a conservative approach to fiscal policy by narrowing the budget deficit to ease the financing pressures. Meanwhile, the central bank, Bank Indonesia, implemented contractionary monetary policy by raising the reserve requirement and policy rates. Weaker global demand, along with limited policy support, contributed to a decrease in economic growth, from 5.3% in 2022 to 5.0% in 2023. The government's conservative approach in 2023 helped produce a surplus in the primary balance, a narrower budget deficit and a lower government–debt ratio. Nonetheless, much is to be done, as more development is needed to encourage long-term growth while revenue collection has been relatively low. Improvement in tax policy and administration will be crucial to allow the government to collect more revenue, including a comprehensive review of tax incentives and exemptions. The efficacy of spending also needs to be further improved by consistently reforming energy subsidisation, reallocating spending to growth areas, better aligning local development policies with the national position, and better targeting poverty-alleviation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public sector has limited resources, and how these resources are allocated in expenditures and investments is crucial. Our article focuses on controlling this allocation for the Greek economy from 2000 to 2021, which includes the country's debt crisis. To do so, we utilized data from national accounts, categorized inputs and outputs, and examined their volatility and stability over time using statistical and mathematical methods. Our analysis revealed that the crisis impacted the size and allocation of public inputs and outputs. While some sectors of the Greek economy displayed stability in financing over time, others were more volatile. Using a mathematical accounting approach contributes to the academic discourse on rational resource allocation in the public sector. Our results validate the tax hypothesis for primary revenues and expenditures and advocate that it is necessary to make targeted recruitments in the sector that is needed each time while keeping the total number constant, which leads to the need to redistribute public sector workers. In the same way, public projects should not only focus on infrastructure projects but should also be spread to new areas related to climate change and the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the definition of the essence of the concept “budget deficit management” is studied. The analysis of changes in the volume and structure of the state budget deficit of Ukraine for the period of 2019-2023 is carried out. It is found that the main reason for the growth of the budget deficit is the increase in military spending. The study of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that the share of military spending in 2023 was 34% of GDP, ranking Ukraine eighth in the world. Based on this it was concluded by the author that there is a need to improve the mechanism of management of the state budget deficit, which, in the context of martial law, should take into account economic, political, environmental and public interests in the budgetary sphere. The structure of this mechanism is built, which includes principles, tools, levers, patterns, methods and approaches. Each of the following components is described. It is noted that in the context of war and post-war economic recovery, there is a close relationship between the mechanism of the budget mechanism management and the mechanism of repatriation of Russian assets and reintegration of force migrants to Ukraine. The functioning of these mechanisms is a new phenomenon not only for Ukraine, but also for partner countries, and therefore these processes require diplomatic, legal efforts and economic justification for their practical implementation, conclusion of the bilateral and multilateral agreement between Ukraine and partner countries. The effectiveness of the mechanism for management the state budget deficit can be improved by introducing significant and timely changes, taking into account the cause and effect of the relationship between budget deficit and the size of public debt, living standards, the pace of economic recovery, demographics, and the possible acceleration of the cooperation with allied countries in providing financial assistance and repatriating frozen Russian assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Europe and the world surface from the pandemic of 2020–2021, public debt levels have risen substantially, the review of the European Union (EU) economic governance framework is underway and the general escape clause of the stability and growth pact (SGP) is planned to be deactivated at the end of 2023. Against this background, it is important to better understand the dynamics of public debt in the EU. This paper studies how European institutions and sectoral national fiscal rules have affected the formation of public debt. The results suggest that over the last 25 years, the SGP has been an effective tool for lowering government debt levels, at least on average. The establishment of the SGP has been the most effective at lowering government debt, while reforms of the SGP have only had limited effects. The effects of national fiscal rules are heterogenous across different rules and public sector classifications, but it seems that national fiscal rules have at least some effects beyond the SGP in all studied cases. This implies that the EU fiscal framework and EU-level fiscal policies should take into account potential interactions with national fiscal rules and both can be used to increase the effectiveness of fiscal policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conditions of military aggression, the need for scientific substantiation of the conceptual foundations of the financial regional policy of the state increases. Modern instruments of regional development, which include both centralized and decentralized instruments of financial policy, are insufficiently researched problems. The task of this study is to generalize the peculiarities of the formation and execution of local budgets of Ukraine and modern scientific approaches to the formation of the financial policy of regional recovery in Ukraine. Financial policy measures to restore the economy of Ukraine are proposed. It is substantiated that a centralized approach can effectively operate only within the territories where active hostilities are taking place, and in other regions it would be appropriate to use the decentralized mechanism of the regional development fund, similar to the activity of such funds in the European Union in the context of the EU cohesion policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal policies are one of the most important instruments of government to guide the progress of the country's economic development. They find significant use in cases where the economy is experiencing a period of recession, such as the current one caused by COVID-19. This study aims to assess the multiplier effects that budget revision has on the economy for the case of Albania, and more specifically by referring to the initial and revised budget scenario for the year 2020 which is characterized by significant changes caused by the presence of COVID-19. Referring to the multipliers from the input–output tables (IOT) the total effect that the state budget brings to the economy for a certain year is derived. From this paper, it appears that the budget restructuring that takes place during the year does not take into account the multiplier effect in the economy, but is mostly done for specific purposes related to certain government functions. In this context, it is very important that various options during budget revision are evaluated, concluding with the option that has the highest returns for the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, the intertemporal optimal management of subsidies offered by the environmental regulator and the dynamic conflict between two groups of economic agents involved in environmental quality are discussed. First the environmental model is examined in its optimal control management form with two state variables. The analysis of the improved model, inspecting the social planner’s decision (policy) variable, the variable which influences not only environmental quality but the national budget stock, reveals that is dependent on the growth of the national budget stock. A negative growth rate leads to the long run saddle point equilibrium, while an incremental growth rate, but less than the model’s discount rate, leads to an interesting complicated limit cycle equilibrium, for which under certain parameter values the orbit’s phase portrait can be drawn. For the dynamic game model between the social planner and natural resource exploiters, the equilibrium conditions are examined. It is rather a richer than the point equilibrium for which the cyclical strategies have great importance. Therefore, the conditions for that rich equilibrium are found. As a continuation, the paper concludes that the equilibrium condition is that the players’ discount rates are both greater than the national budget interest rate. Finally, the certain values of the equilibrium strategies and national budget stock are provided.

This paper studies the factors which lead to budget imbalance and the impact of public deficit, public debt and gross fixed capital formation on economic growth for three Eastern Europe countries, using a data set from 1997 until 2020. A special focus is set on both the relationship between growth and the public deficit and on the fiscal behavior Greece, Bulgaria and Romania adopted to face the challenges brought about by the crisis started in 2009 and the pandemics from 2020. The outcome reveals a positive strong correlation between the deficit and economic growth only in the case of Bulgaria, while for the other two countries, whose deficit was much higher during the whole period of time, the impact is not that significant. Nevertheless, the government consolidated gross debt and the gross fixed capital formation proved to be relevant factors of influence for economic growth in all three cases.

Space science is a large-scale activity by using space vehicles to explore the universe and natural laws and carry out special experiments, which has made great contributions to the development of contemporary science. This paper outlines the major breakthroughs in international space science, analyzes the context and new trends of space science and manned exploration activities, reviews the development achievements of space science in China in the past 20 years, puts forward existing problems and gaps, and emphasizes the strategic position of space science and its importance to China's science and technology, aerospace and the national long-term development. It is proposed that increasing investment on space science, formulating national space science plans and establishing a stable budget system are the guarantee for the long-term and stable development of space science in China. It is suggested that in order to form an innovative path of space science development with Chinese characteristics, we shall make full use of scientific balloons, sounding rockets and other ways to consolidate the research foundation, strengthen the combination of theory, experiment and technology, cultivate a large number of high-quality scientists, promote international cooperation, and improve scientific program management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal policies are one of the most important instruments of government to guide the progress of the country’s economic development. They find significant use in cases where the economy is experiencing a period of recession, such as the current one caused by COVID-19. This study aims to assess the multiplier effects that budget revision has on the economy for the case of Albania, and more specifically by referring to the initial and revised budget scenario for the year 2020 which is characterized by significant changes caused by the presence of COVID-19. Referring to the multipliers from the input–output tables (IOT) the total effect that the state budget brings to the economy for a certain year is derived. From this paper, it appears that the budget restructuring that takes place during the year does not take into account the multiplier effect in the economy, but is mostly done for specific purposes related to certain government functions. In this context, it is very important that various options during budget revision are evaluated, concluding with the option that has the highest returns for the economy.

This paper studies the factors which lead to budget imbalance and the impact of public deficit, public debt and gross fixed capital formation on economic growth for three Eastern Europe countries, using a data set from 1997 until 2020. A special focus is set on both the relationship between growth and the public deficit and on the fiscal behavior Greece, Bulgaria and Romania adopted to face the challenges brought about by the crisis started in 2009 and the pandemics from 2020. The outcome reveals a positive strong correlation between the deficit and economic growth only in the case of Bulgaria, while for the other two countries, whose deficit was much higher during the whole period of time, the impact is not that significant. Nevertheless, the government consolidated gross debt and the gross fixed capital formation proved to be relevant factors of influence for economic growth in all three cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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