Economic Views: EM Fiscal Deficits

About this work

The pandemic widened emerging market fiscal deficits largely through higher spending, making an economic recovery alone insufficient to restore earlier balances. A new dataset of historical spending surges shows that much of the increase often becomes permanent. The January 2021 analysis therefore frames deficit reduction as a spending adjustment challenge as well as a growth question.

Abstract

The pandemic widened emerging market fiscal deficits largely through higher spending, making an economic recovery alone insufficient to restore earlier balances. A new dataset of historical spending surges shows that much of the increase often becomes permanent. The January 2021 analysis therefore frames deficit reduction as a spending adjustment challenge as well as a growth question.