Deficit Reduction: Experiences of Other Nations.

Abstract

This General Accounting Office report reviews the deficit reduction experiences of six nations - Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. GAO identified the elements prompting these governments to engage in fiscal austerity policies, what budget actions they took, and how they achieved political agreement to take these actions. All six countries took actions to control spending, although few programs were eliminated. Revenue growth also contributed significantly, but was generally attributable to tax systems' response to economic growth and inflation. Through these measures, five of the six countries reached fiscal balance or surplus; Canada made progress to reduce its deficit without eliminating it. Despite such progress, all but Mexico reported deficits in 1993. These experiences show that significant structural improvement in fiscal policy is possible in modern democracies, although such progress is difficult to sustain. (KAR) p. 2

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA303094

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Congress
  • Employment
  • Families (Human)
  • Federal Budgets
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • International Relations
  • Investments
  • Law
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • Petroleum
  • Political Systems
  • Public Administration
  • Public Policy

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Economics
  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.