Poland - Toward a Fiscal Framework for Growth : A Public Expenditure and Institutional Review
The objective of this report is to assess the status of public expenditures, and develop recommendations to promote fiscal stability and growth in Poland, towards the consolidation and restructuring of its public finances, strengthening its budget...
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| Format: | Public Expenditure Review |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/01/2185246/poland-toward-fiscal-framework-growth-public-expenditure-institutional-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14868 |
| Summary: | The objective of this report is to
assess the status of public expenditures, and develop
recommendations to promote fiscal stability and growth in
Poland, towards the consolidation and restructuring of its
public finances, strengthening its budget management, and
better leverage in EU financing. This report examines those
social and structural reform issues that affect, or are
affected by the stance of public finance. First, it reviews
Poland's economic performance with a focus on its
macroeconomic policy mix, public debt sustainability issues,
and developments in public finance, and expenditure
composition. It highlights the need to tighten fiscal policy
as a means to further rebalance the macroeconomic policy
mix, and to reverse unfavorable debt dynamics. It also
points out that Poland's public sector is relatively
large for its income level, and that social protection and
assistance related expenditures have been a major source of
this situation. In particular, investment in physical
infrastructure has been relatively neglected during the last
decade in favor of expenditures on social programs and
consumption. Fiscal consolidation has also been hampered by
over-indexation of social expenditures. Second, the report
examines the extent to which the current budgetary outcomes
are the result of weaknesses in the incentive arrangements
for good budgeting. The report suggests significant reforms
in budget processes for sustainable improvements in public
finances, in particular, priority areas include measures to
consolidate the budget, to ensure a comprehensive picture of
public finances, and effective cash management; to
strengthen budgetary processes by exercising a Medium-Term
Expenditure Framework, and incentives for improved public
service delivery; and, to strengthen ex-post internal and
external audit systems. Third, the report examines options
for expenditure cuts and restructuring, necessary for fiscal
sustainability, in particular, it discusses those sectoral
programs that could potentially: (i) provide significant
savings to the budget (social protection); (ii) contribute
to Poland's human and physical capital; (iii) unlock
the growth potential of underutilized factors of production
in agriculture and Poland's rural areas; and, (iv)
improve the country's living conditions, by upgrading
its environmental standards as agreed with the EU. |
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