Member's Documents
IMF Advice on Fiscal Policy
Published by: Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund
The evaluation finds that the IMF adapted its multilateral fiscal advice well to major global shocks and advanced its analytical toolkit during the evaluation period. However, the evaluation points to opportunities to further enhance the effectiveness of the Fund’s fiscal advice. Specifically:
- The IMF played a leading role in advocating countercyclical fiscal support during the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic and made important progress in acknowledging the trade-offs between output stabilization and fiscal sustainability. However, multilateral advice at times remained broad-brush, and it did not sufficiently integrate country-specific Debt Sustainability Analyses or fiscal space assessments.
- In bilateral surveillance, fiscal advice increasingly emphasized countercyclical responses but often did not provide clear recommendations on the fiscal stance or analyze the macroeconomic impact of proposed measures. Staff reports also varied widely in analytical depth across income groups, reflecting data limitations and capacity constraints.
- Staff advice on long-term challenges such as climate, social spending, and public investment expanded in scope, but the trade-offs among these objectives, their integration with fiscal sustainability, and their feedback effects on debt dynamics remained uneven.
In discussing the report, Executive Directors supported all the recommendations. A management implementation plan will now be prepared for Board endorsement by mid-2026.
