Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department The views expressed herein are those of the author and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its Management. Seventeenth Meeting of the Management Group on Statistical Cooperation Luxembourg (March 19–20, 2015) Florina Tanase, Deputy Division Chief, IMF’s Statistics Department Improving Capacity for Government Finance Statistics in Southeastern European Countries

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Overview  About the Project  Status of Current Fiscal Data Reporting for Targeted Countries  Project Objectives/Outcomes  Progress to Date  Structure of the Public Sector  Availability of Debt Data  Next Steps 2

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department About the Project (1/3) 3 18-month project Swiss Government Funding: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo Macedonia Serbia

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department About the Project (2/3) Technical assistance with a broad and relevant focus 4

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department About the Project (3/3)  Focus on achieving concrete results  Enable compliance with EU requirements, including compilation and dissemination of GFS data following the ESA 2010 methodology  Build on past IMF’s Statistical Department technical assistance in GFS to the five targeted countries  Use a systematic approach that would (i) sustain success through a continuous engagement with each country; (ii) develop country-specific gap analysis before undertaking the TA activity; and (iii) promote peer learning 5

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Status of Current Fiscal Data Reporting for Targeted Countries 6  No balance sheet data  Partial balance sheet data only  Coverage of data less than general government  Partial / informal data only IMFWorld Bank / IMF Eurostat Country High Frequency Fiscal Data International Financial Statistics Annual GFS Data Government Finance Statistics Yearbook Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics Database Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) National Accounts Data Albania       Bosnia and Herzegovina       Kosovo  Macedonia     Serbia     

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Project Objectives/Outcomes  Improve compliance/dissemination of GFS data in line with the international standards through TA and regional workshops  Two components: Pillar I on public sector structure and Pillar II on public debt  Pillar I Compile and disseminate a register of all general government entities Identify and classify other public units  Pillar II Compile and disseminate government debt data, including report to the IMF / World Bank Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics database  As a minimum, report central government “Maastricht debt” 7

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Progress to Date  Project commenced in October 2014  3-day diagnostic missions per country during December 2014-January 2015  First Regional Workshop in Ljubljana, March 16-20, 2015 (22 participants from the targeted five countries): Discuss sector classification and debt statistics in line with the international statistical standards Country presentations Presentations by the IMF and Eurostat 8

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Structure of the Public Sector Kosovo as example to illustrate work on Pillar I 9 Source: Findings of the IMF’s Diagnostic Mission (December 2014)

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Availability of Debt Data Albania as example to illustrate work on Pillar II 10 Source: Findings of the IMF’s Diagnostic Mission (October 2014)

Government Finance Division IMF Statistics Department Next Steps  Two-week technical assistance missions per each country (beginning Q through Q1 2016)  Second Regional Workshop in early 2016  Targeted outcomes: Compile/disseminate registers of general government units (April 2016) Commence debt data reporting (April 2016) 11