Macro & Fiscal Measurement
What does the cyclically adjusted balance remove from the actual fiscal balance?
The estimated effect of the economic cycle on revenues and expenditures
What happens to the domestic fiscal multiplier when an economy has a high propensity to import?
It tends to be smaller because more additional demand leaks into foreign production.
At Paris 2024, which sport gave Cabo Verde its first-ever Olympic medal?
Boxing.
If the real interest rate is persistently greater than real GDP growth, what pressure does this place on the debt-to-GDP ratio, absent a sufficient primary surplus?
Upward pressure.
What type of fiscal risk arises when a natural disaster causes a government guarantee to be called?
A discrete fiscal risk, through the materialisation of a contingent liability.
Under accrual accounting, when should expenditure on goods received in December but paid for in January be recorded?
In December, when the economic transaction takes place.
How is tax buoyancy defined?
The percentage change in actual tax revenue divided by the percentage change in the tax base.
When projecting government expenditure, why is it useful to distinguish discretionary from non-discretionary spending?
Because the distinction helps identify which expenditures can be changed by policy decisions and which evolve with existing commitments or rules.
Debt is 60 percent of GDP, r is 6 percent and g is 2 percent. Using (r − g)d, what primary surplus approximately stabilises debt?
2.4 percent of GDP.
Which founder of the Green Belt Movement, known for environmental conservation and democracy, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize?
Wangari Maathai.
Which African writer, whose plays draw on Yoruba mythology while combining African and Western theatrical traditions, won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Wole Soyinka.
When expenditure must be reduced, what should normally be protected rather than cut uniformly across the board?
Core spending programmes, while specific inefficient programmes are eliminated or rationalised.
What characteristic of public investment strongly affects how much growth it generates?
The efficiency of public investment.
Holding the initial debt ratio constant, what happens to the stabilising primary surplus when the interest-growth differential increases?
The required primary surplus increases.
Why should the redistributive effect of fiscal policy be assessed jointly on both the revenue and expenditure sides?
Because income distribution is affected by both the progressivity of taxes and the allocation of public expenditure.
How can a structural balance differ from a cyclically adjusted balance in a commodity-exporting economy?
It can also adjust for economically important factors beyond the output cycle, such as deviations of commodity prices from benchmark levels.
Which combination of import behaviour and monetary conditions tends to produce a larger fiscal multiplier?
A low propensity to import and accommodative monetary conditions.
Which revenue-forecasting concept measures how actual tax revenue responds to changes in the tax base?
Tax buoyancy.
Which national team, drawn with South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe for AFCON 2025, is Africa’s record seven-time champion?
Egypt
What broad consideration do Green PFM and Climate PIMA help integrate into public finance and public investment?
Climate considerations.
Two countries have identical headline deficits, but only one has a large negative output gap. What is likely to differ between their deficits?
The country with the negative output gap is likely to have a larger cyclical component.
Which two countries represented on this course drew 0–0 in Yaoundé in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 13 October 2025?
Cameroon and Angola.
What consistency requirement links projected fiscal deficits with how they are financed?
Cross-sector consistency between the fiscal projections and the financing flows.
When r is greater than g, what fiscal balance can offset the resulting adverse automatic debt dynamics?
A sufficiently large primary surplus.
Why is looking only at tax progressivity insufficient for assessing the distributional effect of fiscal policy?
Because the allocation and incidence of public expenditure also affect income distribution.