IMF | SARTTAC

Target Audience

Junior to mid-level government officials, primarily staff of finance and planning departments from Indian states involved in the analysis, design, conduct, and assessment of fiscal policy.

Qualifications

Participants should have a degree in economics or finance or equivalent work experience, good quantitative skills, and proficiency in the use of computers to analyze data. Applicants are strongly encouraged to complete the online FPP.1x and FFP.2x courses (or face-to-face FPP) before enrolling in this course. Because many of the workshops involve the use of Excel worksheets, familiarity with the basics of Excel is essential.

Course Description

This customized course, presented by the IMF Institute for Capacity Development, is specifically designed to analyze fiscal policy for the States of India using macro-fiscal and debt forecasting tools. The course utilizes a case study developed for the State of Rajasthan. The course starts by reviewing the importance of medium-term macroeconomic frameworks for sound policy making, revisits essential macro-fiscal tools and methodologies including revenue, expenditure and debt forecasting, and examines the conditions for sustainable State Budgets and risks around this baseline scenario in the context of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) framework. The course stresses the need for high-quality information, transparency, and responsibility to hold governments accountable for their medium- to long-term fiscal objectives. The course concludes with thematic presentations by participants.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to: 

• Describe the importance of medium-term macroeconomic and fiscal frameworks to fiscal policy; 

• Be able to apply techniques to undertake revenue and expenditure forecasting; 

• Advise senior policy makers on the medium-term sustainability of State Budgets using a simple debt dynamics framework; 

• Undertake risk analysis around a baseline scenario analysis for key macro-economic and fiscal variables that affect Indian States; and

• Apply experiences from other States in India to everyday fiscal analysis.