According to experts of the International Monetary Fund, Belarus has made significant progress in reforming its budgetary system, the IMF office in Minsk told BelTA.
On September 27, an IMF technical assistance mission concluded its work in Minsk. The aim of the mission was to give recommendations on the way the reforms of the budgetary system of Belarus should be continued. The mission was headed by Mark Robertson (senior economist). The experts visited Minsk on September 13-27, 2006 on the invitation of the finance ministry, economy ministry and other related ministries and agencies and the National Bank of Belarus.
The IMF experts noted significant achievements in the field of expansion of the budget (including the inclusion of social security and innovation funds in the budget coverage) and in the area of budgetary classification in line with international standards. Besides, they said, the country took steps to introduce the system of program and targeted budget planning. Belarus has fulfilled a number of recommendations in that and other fields which had been given by the IMF technical assistance mission earlier.
At the same time the experts said that Belarus still had unsolved issues concerning the state finance management.
The mission mapped out the areas where further technical assistance on the part of international organizations and bilateral donors might be useful. Those areas include the methodology of macroeconomic forecasting, methodology of forecasting revenues, the introduction of a system of forecasting expenditures and others.
The IMF mission has also held three presentations covering the issues of reforming the finance management and budgetary system.
|
