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Caribbean & Central America - April 2018 (ISSN 1741-4458)
REGION: The need for drastic fiscal policy changes in Central America
Faced with huge development challenges such as poverty, income inequality and high violence and crime rates, it will be extremely difficult for Central American countries to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 without addressing its chronic fiscal problems and increasing public spending, warned the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies (Icefi), a regional policymaking institution, in an April 2017 report. However, with most governments in the region reluctant to take on the challenge of implementing far-reaching fiscal reforms there appears to be little hope for change in the short- and mid-term future. Instead, public spending, which represented a mere 18.6% of the region’s GDP in 2017 and is woefully inadequate to tackle deficiencies in healthcare, education and security, is likely to be further reduced due to public spending cutbacks implemented with the aim of reducing fiscal debt.
- Introduction
- REGION: The need for drastic fiscal policy changes in Central America
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