IMF Staff Position Notes

Disclosing Fiscal Risks in the Post-Crisis World

July 16, 2009

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Disclosing Fiscal Risks in the Post-Crisis World, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2009) accessed December 22, 2024

Summary

This paper discusses appropriate methods for disclosing fiscal risks from exogenous shocks and the realization of explicit or implicit contingent obligations of the government. Expanding on previous guidance prepared prior to the crisis, the note focuses on fiscal risks emerging from recent public interventions in the financial sector. Information on fiscal risks and its public reporting leads to a better understanding of the true state of the public finances. Thus, it helps policymakers design and gets public support for, appropriate responses to the realization of various contingencies. More specifically, in the context of the unfolding global financial crisis, a wide range of public sector interventions have been in support of the financial system. Although these interventions have been necessary, they have generated further fiscal risks. Comprehensive reporting would help governments to define a management strategy of the assets and liabilities that they have taken on their balance sheet and to prepare exit strategies for reducing their presence in the financial sector and eventually withdrawing support.

Subject: Contingent liabilities, Economic sectors, Financial statements, Fiscal policy, Fiscal risks, Public debt, Public financial management (PFM), Public sector

Keywords: Asset price volatility, Asset recovery, Commercial paper, Contingent liabilities, Debt, Debt repayment, Debt stock, Fair value, Financial crisis, Financial statements, Fiscal risk, Fiscal risks, Forward-looking risk estimate, Global, Public finance, Public sector, Purchased assets, Recovery rate, Risk, Risk ratings approach, SPN

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    16

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Staff Position Note No. 2009/018

  • Stock No:

    SPNEA2009018

  • ISBN:

    9781455241125

  • ISSN:

    2617-6742