Fiscal Panorama Of Latin America And The Caribbean 2023

In 2022, the fiscal situation in Latin America and the Caribbean was characterized by rising tax revenues and declining in public spending, resulting in smaller fiscal deficits. Nevertheless, public debt remains high. Against this backdrop, this edition of the Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean proposes a fiscal policy for growth, redistribution and productive transformation. It examines options for strengthening personal income tax, to boost its revenues and redistributive potential. In a context of mounting pressure on public spending, it is vital to take strategic approach, to make spending more effective in closing social gaps. This report therefore proposes a new methodology for identifying, measuring and classifying public spending related to gender equality, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants and persons with disabilities.

This edition of Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean coincides with an important milestone: the thirtieth anniversary of the Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Over the past 30 years, this seminar has become a key fixture on the agenda of fiscal policy events in the region.Throughout these three decades, the successive editions of the seminar have served as a forum for national authorities, tax experts and officials from international organizations to discuss the performance, challenges and opportunities of fiscal policy,and it has enhanced policy design and management in the individual countries.

Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Over the past 30 years, this seminar has become a key fixture on the agenda of fiscal policy events in the region.Throughout these three decades, the successive editions of the seminar have served as a forum for national authorities, tax experts and officials from international organizations to discuss the performance, challenges and opportunities of fiscal policy,and it has enhanced policy design and management in the individual countries.

The region is facing a complex economic situation, marked by slowing growth, rising inflation, interest rate hikes and volatility in international markets. This context puts pressure on public finances, compounded by increasing demands for social welfare, investment and environmental sustainability, which pose fiscal policy challenges. The Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022 proposes a fiscal policy design that would help to drive sustainable development, by strengthening tax collection and making tax structures more progressive, and giving a strategic orientation to public spending to turn it into an instrument of development. The report analyses the fiscal trends observed in 2021, which included an upturn in tax receipts and a slowdown in public spending that resulted in smaller fiscal deficits. It also examines fiscal rules and the mechanisms used to ease them during the pandemic, proposing a rethink of these rules aimed at pro-growth fiscal policy. Lastly, it studies the fiscal frameworks applied to hydrocarbon production and mining with a view to maximizing their contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2019 examines the role of tax policy as a tool for driving progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. One way to strengthen collection is to address the challenges of taxing the rapidly growing digital economy. Tax policy can also be used to shift production and consumption patterns to encourage decarbonization of the economy and support improvements in public health. Lastly, the document analyses the constraints on domestic resource mobilization caused by fiscal incentives and how, effectively geared towards investment, these incentives could instead foster sustainable and inclusive development.

Latin America suffered a profound state crisis in the 1980s, which prompted not only the wave of macroeconomic and deregulation reforms known as the Washington Consensus, but also a wide variety of institutional or 'second generation' reforms. 'The State of State Reform in Latin America' reviews and assesses the outcomes of these less studied institutional reforms. This book examines four major areas of institutional reform: a. political institutions and the state organization; b. fiscal institutions, such as budget, tax and decentralization institutions; c. public institutions in charge of sectoral economic policies (financial, industrial, and infrastructure); and d. social sector institutions (pensions, social protection, and education). In each of these areas, the authors summarize the reform objectives, describe and measure their scope, assess the main outcomes, and identify the obstacles for implementation, especially those of an institutional nature.

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2021 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. The report includes two special features examining the fiscal revenues from non-renewable natural resources in the LAC region in 2021 and 2022 as well as the measurement and evaluation of tax expenditures in Latin America. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2022 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. It provides harmonised data on the level and structure of tax revenues based on the OECD classification of taxes, thereby enabling comparison of national tax systems on a consistent basis, both across the region and with other economies globally. The report includes two special features: one examines fiscal revenues from non-renewable natural resources in the LAC region in 2022 and 2023, while the second calculates equivalent fiscal pressure in the LAC region. The publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).