Costa Rica - Public Expenditure Review : Enhancing the Efficiency of Expenditures
Costa Rica, an upper middle-income developing country of 4 million inhabitants, is well known for its socio-economic achievements. Costa Rica's economic growth has averaged 4.7 percent annually over the last 15 years, about 2 percentage points...
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| Format: | Public Expenditure Review |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/03/9543594/costa-rica-public-expenditure-review-enhancing-efficiency-expenditures http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8122 |
| Summary: | Costa Rica, an upper middle-income
developing country of 4 million inhabitants, is well known
for its socio-economic achievements. Costa Rica's
economic growth has averaged 4.7 percent annually over the
last 15 years, about 2 percentage points above the rest of
Latin America, reflecting its stable macroeconomic and
political environment, strong institutions, and a
well-educated work force. Costa Rica has followed a
successful strategy of outward oriented export-led growth,
openness to foreign investment, and gradual trade
liberalization that transformed the economy from one highly
dependent on agriculture and agro-industry to one that is
now led by high-tech computer and electronic industries,
services such as transport, communications and banking,
non-traditional agriculture, and tourism. The government of
Costa Rica realizes that continued economic growth and
poverty reduction require an improvement in the quality of
infrastructure and social sector services, particularly if
Costa Rica is to take full advantage of the greater global
market opportunities in the context of Dominican
Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA)
and other free trade initiatives. To improve the quality of
public services while simultaneously reducing its fiscal
vulnerability is challenging, especially since reaching a
political consensus on revenue enhancing tax reform has
proven difficult. This report is the outcome of the
government's request to the World Bank (WB) and
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to identify possible
reforms in policies and institutions to enhance the
effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of public
expenditures. Such reforms will support Costa Rica's
efforts to ensure sustainable fiscal balances and establish
effective and transparent mechanisms to allocate public
resources so as to promote broad-based economic growth,
improve social indicators, and reduce poverty. |
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