Quality of Public Finances and Economic Growth
Streszczenie
Fiscal sustainability is considered as a fundamental requirement of economic
growth. The paper studies this topic regarding the EU Member States, especially the new ones.
The ageing society of the EU countries results in growing dependency ratio and growing agerelated
budget expenditure as implicit requirements. All these require the maintenance of the
current state debt ratio and a permanent budget adjustment.
The differences among Member States are significant, the country risks are diverse. In certain
countries unsustainable public finances -sustainability gap – might evolve.
Sustainable public finances are considered of special importance in the system of the EMU.
Due to the lack of exchange rates, risk premia it comes to the spill-over of fiscal sustainability
problems.
Besides the reduction in state debt the creation of sustainable public finances requires
employment and productivity growth, and the reforms of age-related expenditure.
The quality of public finances requires the joint observance of several dimensions: long-term
sustainability, stabilization (demand shocks), adjustment (effects of supply shocks) and the
promotion of long-term growth are of outstanding importance.
Main factors of the quality of public finances are the size of government, the level of deficit
and state debt, composition of public spending, the structure of the tax system, and the fiscal
governance and regulation.
The Economic and Monetary Union itself has not forced out the necessary reforms yet. The
fundamental public finance reforms are, however, unavoidable. In the ageing society there is a
growing need for forward-looking policies. The integrated structural reforms that could contribute
to the promotion of the potential growth might bring permanent solutions.
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