Public Expenditure Review Of Armenia

This, the first full-scale World Bank Public Expenditure Review for Armenia, reviews the main fiscal trends in Armenia for the period of 1997-2001 and develops recommendations with respect to further fiscal adjustment, expenditure prioritization, and budget consolidation. The analysis focuses on the following core issues: Sustainability of fiscal adjustment, fiscal transparency, expenditure priorities, and short-term expenditure management given the existing economy-wide institutional constraints. This study covers extra-budgetary funds, in-kind external grants, subsidies provided by the state-owned companies in the energy and utility sectors, and operation of the Social Insurance Fund, as well as regular budgetary spending. It suggests a medium-term action plan to address identified weaknesses. Sector chapters review health, education, and social protection and insurance. The report also analyzes budget support for core public infrastructure, and ArmeniaA's public investment program.

This Fiscal Transparency Evaluation report highlights that Uzbekistan is embarking on a comprehensive reform program to strengthen public financial management and fiscal transparency. Wide-ranging reforms to improve the coverage, reliability, quality, and accessibility of fiscal reports are being developed and implemented, and some good progress already made. This assessment of fiscal transparency practices has been undertaken to support the government’s efforts to increase transparency by identifying priority areas for reform. An evaluation of practices against the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code (the Code) finds that tangible gains have been made over 2017 and 2018. In several areas where Uzbekistan’s practices do not currently meet the basic standard required under the Code, quick progress can be made. The report also provides a more detailed evaluation of Uzbekistan’s fiscal transparency practices and recommended reform priorities. Strengthening legislative oversight of the state budget with a view to reducing the extent to which in-year changes can be made to aggregate expenditures without prior parliamentary approval.

No two markets for voluntary health insurance (VHI) are identical. All differ in some way because they are heavily shaped by the nature and performance of publicly financed health systems and by the contexts in which they have evolved. This volume contains short structured profiles of markets for VHI in 34 countries in Europe. These are drawn from European Union member states plus Armenia Iceland Georgia Norway the Russian Federation Switzerland and Ukraine. The book is aimed at policy-makers and researchers interested in knowing more about how VHI works in practice in a wide range of contexts. Each profile written by one or more local experts identifies gaps in publicly-financed health coverage describes the role VHI plays outlines the way in which the market for VHI operates summarises public policy towards VHI including major developments over time and highlights national debates and challenges. The book is part of a study on VHI in Europe prepared jointly by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. A companion volume provides an analytical overview of VHI markets across the 34 countries.

After a detailed account of reform experiences in several countries and the public debate regarding government reform, the study closes with an outlook on the future role of the state, a period when globalization may require and people may want "leaner" but not "meaner" states."--Jacket.

This study examines the fiscal, efficiency, social, and environmental impact of power sector reforms in seven countries in Europe and central Asia (covering Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Poland). It includes a CD-ROM containing a pdf of this publication in Russian, plus pdfs of English and Russian versions of the following related titles: i) Utility pricing and the poor: lessons from Armenia; ii) Coping with the cold: heating strategies for eastern Europe and central Asia's urban poor; and iii) Revisiting reform in the energy sector: lessons from Georgia.

Real GDP growth rebounded strongly in 2021 and early 2022, driven by a pickup in construction, trade, and services activities, and benefiting from strong policies and a gradual improvement of the pandemic, notwithstanding its various waves. In 2022, the budget aimed at continuing a gradual fiscal consolidation, while still providing temporary and targeted support to the economy, and monetary policy aimed at continuing its tightening cycle that started in late-2020 to cool down inflation. The favorable near-term outlook, however, is set to be interrupted by the spillovers from the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, given Armenia’s economic links and exposure to the Russian economy. Growth has been revised down markedly this year, while inflationary pressures are expected to persist, keeping inflation above the Central Bank of Armenia’s (CBA) target in 2022.