Browse by: "O"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
This paper suggests that: (i) national communications be produced more frequently while their focus is streamlined; (ii) reporting guidelines be revised to improve transparency about mitigation commitments/actions/targets that countries have indicated to the international community as well as other obligations taken under the UNFCCC and subsequently; (iii) standard reporting formats be used for more of the information in national communications; (iv) a flexible reporting framework be established for non-Annex I countries, where the information in (and possibly timing of) national reports is “tiered” according to national circumstances; (v) an increased emphasis be placed on reporting of “key” issues; (vi) information routinely provided on adaptation measures and policies be formalised; (vii) reporting on “support” be increased and its structure improved; and (viii) in reports from non-Annex I countries, the provision of information that is already routinely provided be formalised.
OECD governments are facing ongoing challenges in the markets for government securities as a result of continued strong borrowing amid concerns about the pace of recovery and sovereign risk. The third OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook† Raising large volumes of funds at lowest cost, with acceptable roll-over risk, remains a great challenge for several countries, with most OECD debt managers continuing to rebalance the profile of debt portfolios by issuing more long-term instruments and moderating bill issuance. provides revised estimates for 2010 and projections for 2011. Gross borrowing needs of OECD governments are expected to reach almost USD 17.5 trillion in 2010, up from an earlier estimate of almost USD 16 trillion. In 2011, the borrowing needs of OECD sovereigns are projected to reach almost USD 19 trillion, nearly twice that of 2007. Against this backdro,p government debt ratios are expected to further deteriorate. An additional challenge for government issuers is how to deal with the complications generated by the pressures of a rapid increase in sovereign risk, whereby “the market” suddenly perceives the debt of some sovereigns as “risky”. JEL Classification: G14, G15, G18, H6, H60, H62, H63, H68 Keywords: sovereign borrowing, public deficits and debt, roll-over risk, sovereign risk.
The IEA analysis, however, finds that contrary to these views, the NOCs actually operate with a high degree of independence from the Chinese government, and their investments have in fact largely boosted global supplies of oil and gas, which other importers rely on.
The main outcomes of the 2010 survey are the following:
- The survey data does not portrait an education system dramatically affected by overall budget cuts. In countries where public investment in education has diminished, the effects are still very specific and concentrated, and vary across and within sectors of education.
- In general, governments seem to be rather successful in protecting education spending. Although in some cases the impact on teachers and schools is significant, governments are trying to contain the negative impact of fiscal consolidation. Some countries even have increased funding for specific parts of the education system in order to enhance output and efficiency. Only in the few countries which have been severely hit by the crisis a more general expenditure cut has occurred.
- The demand for non-compulsory education continues to augment, especially in vocational education and training, although the recession reduces the capacity of enterprises to uphold their training investments. As a result, higher demand is not systematically transformed in all cases into more training places.
- The recession has not slowed down reforms in education; on the contrary, some countries have accelerated reforms. Alleviating unemployment, meeting increased demands, preparing future growth and fostering innovation are the most frequently mentioned policy rationales for education policies which are trying to enhance the education system’s capacity and efficiency.
- Some governments are also taking into consideration the difficult situation of private households by increasing social measures to contain education cost.
This paper brings together the latest data and OECD productivity indicators in different areas with the aim of reviewing the main productivity trends over the past decade, comparing the United States, Europe and to some extent Japan. Concerning economy wide indicators of productivity, the slowdown appears to be due to a significant slowdown in investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) followed by a decrease in multi-factor productivity (MFP). However, a new set of indicators of MFP growth by industry shows that the decline of productivity is particularly marked in sectors such as construction and market services. Looking for possible explanations of the decline, a marked slowdown in innovation emerged as the most likely cause. It concludes that, if no new wave of innovation materialises, comparable in size to the one of the late 1990s (around notably the Internet), the OECD trend productivity growth is not likely to resume at its end-1990s level. Only a recovery in innovation itself could trigger a sustainable recovery in productivity in the major OECD countries.
Securitisation issuance has slumped in recent years, with the market having become increasingly dependent on central bank and government support in both Europe and the United States. Despite facing a number of threats that could inhibit a recovery in the shorter term, the securitisation market is expected to recover over a longer term horizon. Funding costs have improved, but investor confidence in the asset class remains weak, and the impact of regulatory reform is as yet difficult to fully assess. A long-term sustainable recovery for the securitisation market remains in the hands of regulators and policy makers. They must be awake to the possibility that a recovery in securitisation markets could be a prerequisite to unlocking credit markets in general and supporting a wider global economic recovery.
The borrowing requirements of African governments in financing their budget deficits are increasingly met by selling marketable instruments but also by the issuance of non-marketable debt in the form of bi-lateral, multilateral and concessional loans. The second edition of the OECD Statistical Yearbook on African Central Government Debt provides comprehensive quantitative information on African central government debt instruments, including both marketable and non-marketable debt. Individual country data are presented in a comprehensive standard framework to facilitate cross-country comparison.
This paper analyses the change in the Austrian business cycle over time using data back to 1954. The change in the cyclical pattern is captured using a non-linear univariate structural time series model where the time of the break point is estimated. Results for GDP series suggest a break in the frequency of the cycle and in the parameter covering the variance of the disturbances of the cycle taking place in the mid 1970s and early 1980s, respectively. Using data for GDP components a break in these variables is found too, but the timing of the break differs among the series. In a further step the paper assesses the relevance of these findings for forecasting purposes. It is shown that during certain periods the out-of-sample forecasting performance of GDP does improve when a break in one of the two parameters is explicitly modelled.