Browse by: "2016"

The outcome of COP21 urged developed countries to scale up their level of financial support, over and above their initial finance pledges, with a concrete roadmap to achieve their USD 100 billion a year commitment by 2020. This note provides analytical support to country preparation of such a roadmap, assessing the scale of future climate finance as well as identifying and discussing some key uncertainties. It sets out the resulting projections for climate finance in 2020 along with the underlying assumptions and methodologies.

Backed by strong economic growth Chile has made substantial progress in improving the quality of life of its citizens. Nonetheless, gaps in living standards vis-à-vis other OECD countries remain large and there are strong differences in well-being across the Chilean population. The government has introduced important steps to strengthen redistribution and improve equality of opportunities, including ambitious tax, labour and education reforms. But there is room to further improve the design of many policies to promote inclusiveness. Moreover, to sustain progress in well-being, Chile also needs faster productivity growth which stagnated until recently. This requires policies that foster competition, improve human capital accumulation and increase the diversification of the economy that still relies heavily on commodity exports.

To capitalise on the new international resolve epitomised by COP21 and the agreement on the universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires a renewed effort to promote new policy thinking and new approaches to the great challenges ahead. Responding to new challenges means we have to adopt more ambitious frameworks, design more effective tools, and propose more precise policies that will take account of the complex and multidimensional nature of the challenges. The goal is to develop a better sense of how economies really work and to articulate strategies which reflect this understanding. The OECD’s New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) exercise challenges our assumptions and our understanding about the workings of the economy. This collection from OECD Insights summarises opinions from inside and outside the Organisation on how NAEC can contribute to achieving the SDGs, and describes how the OECD is placing its statistical, monitoring and analytical capacities at the service of the international community. The authors also consider the transformation of the world economy that will be needed and the long-term “tectonic shifts” that are affecting people, the planet, global productivity, and institutions.

Going for Growth is the OECD’s regular report on structural reforms in policy areas that have been identified as priorities to boost incomes in OECD and selected non-OECD countries (Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Russian Federation and South Africa). Policy priorities are updated every two years and presented in a full report, which includes individual country notes with detailed policy recommendations to address the priorities.The next full report will be published in 2017.
This interim report takes stock of the actions taken by governments over the past two years in the policy areas identified as priorities for growth. This stocktaking is supported by internationally comparable indicators that enable countries to assess their economic performance and structural policies in a wide range of areas.
 

Since the beginning of China’s economic transformation in the early 1970s, investment has been a key driver of China’s growth and has contributed to substantial improvements in living standards. Over three decades of average annual GDP growth of 10%, disposable incomes have soared, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty. The share of the population living in extreme poverty has declined from above 90% in the early 1980s to less than 10% today. However, this growth model is no longer sustainable. Returns on investment have declined, although they are still higher than those of the Asian Tigers. Excess capacity is plaguing several sectors, and negative externalities have been onerous, notably in terms of environmental degradation and income inequality. A key objective of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) is therefore to move the economy towards a path of more balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth.

How can governments reduce workforce costs while ensuring civil servants remain engaged and productive? This report addresses this question, using evidence from the 2014 OECD Survey on Managing Budgeting Constraints: Implications for HRM and Employment in Central Public Administration. The results clearly illustrate the complex challenges facing civil services, such as how to reduce size and cost while still attracting and retaining high-calibre professional talent. The first part of this report shows that the pressure on central public administrations to reduce costs has required many OECD countries to make cuts that have likely resulted in negative impacts on the workforce regarding trust, motivation and commitment. Overall, 67% of countries surveyed have implemented a pay freeze since 2008. The second part explores how a number of OECD countries are using employee surveys as a leadership tool to better manage employee engagement, which is linked to better job performance, organisational commitment, productivity and public sector innovation. Employee engagement can be a powerful counter balance to austerity-driven measures.

Fiscal Federalism 2016 surveys recent trends and policies in intergovernmental fiscal relations and sub-central government. Accessible and easy-to read chapters provide insight: into growing spending and tax devolution; the fiscal constitutions of federal countries; how immovable property taxation is regaining its former significance; on the true spending power of sub central governments; on the mix between own tax resources and intergovernmental grants; and on the role of fiscal rules and good budget frameworks for sustainable debt management at the state and local level.

A major challenge facing the Republic of Buryatia, subject of the Russian Federation, is how to balance the task of protecting Lake Baikal – a unique water object and ecological system included in the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage Areas – with the need for dynamic and sustainable socio-economic development of the republic.  This requires streamlining and improving water policy jointly with economic, administrative, information and other policy instruments. The recommendations in this report aim to help achieve this objective. They include the introduction of abstraction charges for irrigation water as a  natural resource; enhancement of state support to the water sector; and improvement of economic instruments for managing risks of water-related hazards (such as compulsory insurance and differentiated land tax rates in flood prone areas). A few innovative instruments are also recommended for pilot testing such as establishing limits for discharges of certain hazardous substances in a pilot area (e.g. Selenga river basin) and progressive development of market for tradable quotas for discharges of the “capped” pollutants; and introducing a charge (tax) on toxic agricultural chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and synthetic detergents so that to create incentives for the reduction of diffuse water pollution.

With 25 years of sluggish economic growth, Japan’s per capita income has fallen from a level matching the average of the top half of OECD countries in the early 1990s to 14% below that today. Weak growth, together with rapid population ageing, has driven public debt into uncharted territory. Revitalising growth is thus the top priority for the Japanese government. With the labour force shrinking more rapidly than the population, per capita output can only grow through improvements in labour productivity and labour force participation. Japan’s highly-skilled labour force and its technological leadership can help close the gap with leading OECD countries in per capita income. But broad-based structural reforms, as envisaged in the third arrow of Abenomics, are needed to allow these strengths to fully achieve their potential. The initial impact of Abenomics in 2013 was impressive, and the reform process needs to continue.

The National Accounts of OECD Countries, Financial Accounts includes financial transactions (both net acquisition of financial assets and net incurrence of liabilities), by institutional sector (non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households and non-profit institutions serving households, total economy and rest of the world) and by financial operation. Country tables are expressed in national currency. Data are based on the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) for all countries except Chile, Japan and Turkey which are presented on the basis of the 1993 SNA.

The National Accounts of OECD Countries, Financial Balance Sheets includes financial stocks (both financial assets and liabilities), by institutional sector (non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households and non-profit institutions serving households, total economy and rest of the world) and by financial instrument. Data are based on the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) for all countries except Chile, Japan and Turkey which are presented on the basis of the 1993 SNA.

The 2015 edition of National Accounts of OECD Countries, General Government Accounts is an annual publication, dedicated to government finance which is based on the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008) for all countries except Chile, Japan, Korea and Turkey (SNA 1993). It includes tables showing government aggregates and balances for the production, income and financial accounts as well as detailed tax and social contribution receipts and a breakdown of expenditure of general government by function, according to the harmonised international classification, COFOG. These detailed accounts are available for the general government sector. Data also cover the following sub-sectors, according to availability: central government, state government, local government and social security funds.

The National Accounts of OECD Countries, Main Aggregates covers expenditure-based GDP, output-based GDP, income-based GDP, GDP per capita, disposable income, saving and net lending, population and employment. It includes also comparative tables based on purchasing power parities (PPPs) and exchange rates. Data are shown for 34 OECD countries and the Euro area back to 2007. Country tables are expressed in national currency. Data are based on the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA).

Northern Ireland is currently undertaking public administration reforms organised around three main objectives: improving strategic approaches, improving operational delivery of services to citizens and businesses, and improving engagement with people. This review supports those reforms by providing an assessment and recommendations on a wide range of issues, including strategy-setting and co-ordination, strategic government-wide human resources management, open government, regulatory reform and digital government. It highlights areas where Northern Ireland possesses strengths upon which to build future reforms and suggests actions for the future. This is the first Public Governance Review to be conducted by the OECD at the subnational level.

This Interim Report updates projections made in the November 2015 issue of OECD Economic Outlook (Number 98).

This Interim Report updates projections made in the June 2016 issue of OECD Economic Outlook (Number 99).

The OECD Economic Outlook  is the OECD's twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and prospects for the next two years. The Outlook puts forward a consistent set of projections for output, employment, prices, fiscal and current account balances.
Coverage is provided for all OECD member countries as well as for selected non-member countries. This issue includes a general assessment, a special chapter on promoting productivity and equality, a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country and a statistical annex.
 

The OECD Economic Outlook  is the OECD's twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and prospects for the next two years. The Outlook puts forward a consistent set of projections for output, employment, prices, fiscal and current account balances.
Coverage is provided for all OECD member countries as well as for selected non-member countries. This issue includes a general assessment, a special chapter on promoting productivity and equality, a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country and a statistical annex.

This 2016 OECD Economic Survey of the Canada examines recent economic developments, policies and prospects. The special chapters cover: Network sector competition; Small business dynamism.