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Georgia Public Expenditure Review : Strategic Issues and Reform AgendaGenerating growth and creating jobs
 within a sustainable fiscal framework is Georgia s biggest
 macroeconomic challenge. Although Georgia registered rapid
 growth of 5.7 percent a year during 2010-13, unemployment
 remains high at 15 percent. New growth companies, especially
 in tourism and other service sectors, did not generate
 enough formal or even informal employment. Fiscal policy
 played a crucial role in Georgia s recent growth performance
 with a fiscal stimulus driven post-crisis recovery which
 increased deficit and debt levels followed by fiscal
 consolidation during 2010-12 when recovery took hold. The
 weak execution of the budget in 2013 and policy uncertainty
 were largely responsible for the growth slowdown during the
 year. Tackling the growth and jobs agenda in Georgia will
 require significant investment in human and physical capital
 and the government has a large role to play here. Additional
 spending, where it is needed, should be undertaken within
 the fiscal consolidation agenda of the government, designed
 to help restore the macroeconomic buffers needed to secure
 stability and sustain confidence in the future. The change
 in government in 2012 marked a shift in fiscal policy with
 prioritization of recurrent social expenditures over capital
 spending, thereby, increasing budget rigidity. During
 2012-13, the government raised the benefit levels under the
 targeted social assistance (TSA) and pensions and introduced
 universal health care (UHC). As a result, the fiscal deficit
 is likely to increase from 2.6 percent of gross domestic
 product (GDP) in 2013 to 3.7 percent in 2014. Over the
 medium term, an aging population and the need to improve
 health outcomes and coverage of the poor in social
 assistance programs will keep social expenditures high at
 more than 9 percent of GDP. The share of capital
 expenditures will level off, meanwhile. Such an outcome will
 reduce the government s flexibility in trimming current
 expenditures in the future.
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Sudan : World Bank Review of 2008 Budget Performance and 2009 Budget Preliminary AnalysisAs a follow-up to the first Public Expenditure Review (PER), this note reviews fiscal management by the Government of National Unity (GoNU) through 2008 budget performance, including pro-poor spending, and how do its main features compare to the fiscal management under the first phase of the post-CPA interim period (2005-07)? The note also runs through the highlights of the key features of the GoNU 2009 budget and what has been the impact of the global crisis on the budget performance through the first quarter. The main objective is to highlight fiscal lessons for the remaining period of the post-CPA interim period. The note is structured around the following six sections: review of the economic assumptions underlying the 2008 budgets, aggregate fiscal performance, revenue performance, expenditure performance, pro-poor spending, and the 2009 budget analysis followed by actual outturns through the first quarter.
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Poland - Public Expenditure Review : Analysis of Social Sectors and Public WagesThis report looks at public spending on
 pensions, education, health, social assistance, labor market
 programs, and public wages. Presenting the findings of a
 series of studies and notes compiled sice April 2009, it
 highlights how reforming such spending, which comprises
 about one quarter of gross domestic product (GDP), is
 essential for mitigating the impact of the economic crisis
 and for transforming Poland from a welfare state to a
 workfare society in line with Government's Vision 2030.
 The report has two main messages. First, Poland can take
 measures to reduce public expenditures on social sectors and
 public wages by around 2.3 percentage points over the next
 three years. Second, beyond supporting the fiscal adjustment
 required in the context of the economic crisis, public
 expenditure reforms can also help bring about structural
 changes envisioned as part of the Government's strategy
 for 2030. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of
 Poland's social sector and public wage polices and lays
 out options for reform. The summary report has five parts.
 The first part lays out the macroeconomic context. It
 emphasizes that Poland has weathered the global economic
 crisis remarkably well but that the recovery is likely to be
 feeble and subject to uncertainty. The next part discusses
 the fiscal fallout of the crisis and argues that public
 expenditure reform should be a crucial pillar for fiscal
 consolidation. Sections three to five contain the main
 findings of the report. Section three presents a list of
 important reforms of public expenditures on social sectors
 and wages in support of Vision 2030. Section four simulates
 the fiscal impact of public expenditure reforms, with a
 particular focus on state budget expenditures. The final
 section discusses how institutional reforms in the areas of
 medium-term and performance-based budget can support the
 reform agenda. Volume two presents the detailed analyses of
 social sectors and institutional reforms of public finance.