Belgium Selected Issues

Belgium: Selected Issues

Belgium: Selected Issues

In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country.

Selected Issues

This Selected Issues paper reviews Belgium’s experience with fiscal adjustment and the long-term outlook for the public finances. The paper discusses the composition and scale of the fiscal adjustment, and the extent to which it has exerted a durable impact on the public finances. It offers a quantitative analysis of the interaction between fiscal policy and developments in saving and investment, with a view to contributing to reflection on desirable policy priorities in the future.

This Selected Issues Paper on Belgium provides an overview of the extent of trade and financial openness of Belgium and the links to particular countries. With an export-to-GDP ratio of 79 percent, Belgium belongs to the most open economies in Europe and also globally. Its exports are highly concentrated with a share of three-fourths of total merchandise exports accounted for by the European Union, of which close to two-thirds go to Germany, France, and the Netherlands.