Georgia Public Expenditure Review
Georgia Public Expenditure Review

Author: World Bank

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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This Public Expenditure Review (PER) was prepared at the request of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia; its analysis of public spending is designed to inform the Georgian authorities on the fiscal policies that support growth and equity. As Georgia strives to meet the challenges of a fluid global economic environment, this PER is intended to support the government's efforts to secure macroeconomic and fiscal sustainability to promote growth and equity. This is a testing time for Georgia's public finances, as the country faces slowing growth and a difficult regional context. This Public Expenditure Review (PER) is organized in two chapters; the first focusing on the overarching macro-fiscal challenges facing Georgia, and the second "zooming in" to the challenges for public spending in the health sector. In particular, the PER provides an overview of the recent macroeconomic and fiscal developments highlighting major drivers of rising spending, and analyzes potential revenue gains that could be derived from eliminating tax expenditures (Chapter 1). The second part of the report carries out a detailed review of the health spending in Georgia, providing both the context and rationale for implementing the much needed Universal Healthcare (UHC) program in 2013, while highlighting the need for properly managing the existing short-term cost pressures, as well further improving the system's long-term efficiency and sustainability. This PER is an integral part of the programmatic series of PERs (2012, 2014, and 2015) providing new analyses and recommendations that are complementary to the existing ones. The PER (2012) analyzed the rising expenditure pressures on social and capital spending, and presented options for fiscal consolidation, including measures to improve selectivity in capital expenditures, enhance the sustainability of the pension program, and the coverage of targeted social assistance. The PER (2014) examined the spending on social protection, health, and education, and provided recommendations including strengthening the Social Service Agency, increasing the UHC drug coverage, strengthening preschool education, and improving general and vocational education. It also analyzed quasi-fiscal spending and intergovernmental fiscal relations. A special volume of the PER (2014) studied Georgia's Public Investment Management and how it could be further enhanced to improve the efficiency of public investment. The PER (2015) highlighted the presence of spending pressures from social programs and analyzed spending efficiency, which led to policy options to direct the redistribution policies towards greater equity, improve agriculture subsidy programs and local government spending. This PER, as a continuation of the series, while focusing its analyses and recommendations strategically on new and specific challenges, it also draws a selected number of recommendations from previous PERs, notwithstanding that most issues covered in previous PERs remain crucial and need to be addressed in parallel.

Georgia
Georgia

Author: Weltbank

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Like other low-income countries, Georgia's ability to reduce poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 will depend crucially on its ability to sustain per-capita GDP growth and to use effectively and efficiently its scarce public resources. Indeed, increased public expenditures will not result in improved social outcomes unless current productivity levels are improved. This report shows that weaknesses in Georgia's public expenditure management systems have led to serious inefficiencies and inequities in the use of public resources and have prevented the necessary restructuring in public expenditures. The first three chapters explore sources of these systemic problems in the context of macroeconomic management, revenue policy and administration, and budget management systems. Subsequent chapters explore the scope for strengthening budget management systems in the areas most critical for poverty reduction and the attainment of MDGs: local governments and social sector spending. These chapters both corroborate and supplement with further detail the core constraints on public expenditure restructuring seen in the earlier chapters, but also map out the complementary components of a reform strategy which recognizes the need for parallel action by central agencies, line ministries, and local governments. Given that identified weaknesses cannot all be addressed at once, the PER offers an approach to sequence expenditure management reforms in phases.

Georgia Public Expenditure Review
Georgia Public Expenditure Review

Author: Weltbankgruppe

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Georgia has an impressive growth record but social vulnerabilities persist. It remains a challenge to tackle social vulnerabilities within a sustained macroeconomic framework. This programmatic public expenditure review (PER) assesses the alignment of selected fiscal programs with the government's social objectives. Building on the analysis and recommendations of the 2014 PER, this PER analyzes the impact of recent reforms including the social programs that were either introduced or scaled up in 2013. It gives an overview of the recent macroeconomic and fiscal developments, including the fiscal implications of the social programs in chapter one. It addresses three questions in the rest of the report: (1) has the realignment of spending toward social sectors resulted in better distributional outcomes; (2) have the agriculture support programs been targeted at productivity growth to support real incomes in poor rural regions; and (3) what is the fiscal and equity impact of the ongoing decentralization process? The first question is addressed by combining micro household survey data with administrative fiscal data to analyze the distributional impact of both taxes and government spending on poverty and inequality in Georgia in chapter two. The second question is addressed by comparing the cost of new agriculture programs with their estimated impact on agricultural productivity in chapter three. Finally, the issue of regional inequalities is partially addressed by discussing three different aspects of the current decentralization process: the expected fiscal impact of decentralization, the need to rationalize current capital grant programs to make public investment more effective, and the implications of introducing free preschool education administered at the local government level in chapter four.

Georgia Public Expenditure Review
Georgia Public Expenditure Review

Author: Weltbank

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Generating 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.

Georgia - Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)
Georgia - Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)

Author: Weltbank

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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This Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment provides an updated and systematic diagnostic of the Public Financial Management (PFM) system in Georgia and provides mid-2007 as a base line for complementing the Government's efforts to monitor progress in the PFM reforms going forward. This summary presents: (i) an assessment of Georgia's PFM performance in applying the PEFA Performance Measurement Framework structured across six dimensions; (ii) an assessment of the impact of PFM weaknesses; and (iii) an assessment of the institutional framework underpinning the prospects for PFM reform. There are, however, areas in the existing internal and external control system, personnel and payroll, public procurement, and reporting of high quality consolidated financial statements that are in need of continued reform to further enhance the effectiveness of the PFM. It is envisaged that this assessment will contribute to the government reform agenda by highlighting the areas in which reform has succeeded and those in which weaknesses remain. The assessment will also serve the donor community in directing its assistance programs in those areas of public financial management where the Government's PFM strategy can be further strengthened.

Georgia
Georgia

Author: International Monetary Fund

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2006-11-09

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 145181464X

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Economic growth continues to be strong, but inflation has increased substantially. The structural agenda remains focused on further improving tax and customs administration, improving fiscal planning and public expenditure management, and strengthening financial markets. The main risks to the economic outlook stems from domestic and external political pressures. Despite these risks and the recent surge in inflation, the government’s strong track record and the commitment to take corrective measures, as needed, bode well for the successful implementation of the program.