Description:
During most of the 2000s, Kosovo has
pursued a highly conservative fiscal policy, restraining
expenditures as revenues continued to climb. The Government
has now shifted toward an expansionary expenditure policy.
In the short term, the Government intends to finance the
resulting budget deficits from accumulated savings and
borrowing, as well as through the sale of assets and donor
budget support. Neither solution is sustainable. In
principle, there is room to increase revenues Kosovo's
tax burden is low by regional standards. But the weakness of
domestic tax instruments makes this difficult. Restraint on
the expenditure side will be required. Given the
well-documented shortcomings of public services in Kosovo,
this will require an improvement in the quality of public
expenditure an improvement in the efficiency of public
service delivery rather than a reduction in the quantity or
quality of services. This report looks for such
opportunities in the major programs of Government
expenditure. Overall, Kosovo is in a position to maintain a
sustainable fiscal stance while continuing to improve the
quality of public services. The public sector is small,
relative to gross domestic product (GDP), and does not bear
a crushing burden of long term obligations to pensioners, to
veterans, to creditors that threaten the finances of
neighboring countries.