Last week, Eurostat published the statistics on GDP growth for 2009 and it is without surprise that we read in the data a slowing down of economic growth for OECD countries. The average decrease in GDP points for EU countries is -4.2%. But this average is hiding some astonishing disparities.
European Comparisons
This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on March 18, 2010
In the wake of his party’s crushing defeat in regional elections, it’s time to take stock of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, three years on. As in the USSR between 1985 and 1991, France has of late experienced a period of perestroika: The government recognizes the need to reform the system, but is simultaneously trying to save it. The hitch is that the system itself is unreformable. It must be replaced.
News
Taxation and Red Tape: The Cost to British Business of Complying with the UK Tax System
by
IREF
The Institute of Economic Affairs is publishing a study on the burden of tax compliance and administration in the UK.
This monograph shows the severely regressive nature of the costs of complying with the UK tax system – small firms suffer far more than large firms from the imposition of government bureaucracy related to tax collection.
The annual report of the World Bank is announcing a record level of the number of business regulation reforms in the world. Between June 2008 and May 2009, 287 reforms were recorded in 131 economies, 20% more than the year before.The good news are that “reformers focused on making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening property rights and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures”, as one can read in the report. Eastern Europe was one of the more active regions. Here is the ranking of the 27 European countries:
Several European countries have used complex fiscal instruments and aggressive bookkeeping in order to meet the euro zone fiscal ceilings, according to an article published in the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, the caps of a debt level below 60% of the GDP and of a budget deficit below 3% is apparently source of trouble even for countries with a reputation of rigorous public finances.
Fiscal strategic interaction is a recurrent topic of recent economic literature. This short paper describes a database created as an instrument to analyze such interactions between Italian municipalities in local…
You can find here links of interest and statistical data about French taxation and debt.
Recent study of the European Commission on taxation trends confirmed the position of Slovakia among the countries with the lowest tax burden in European Union. With total 29,4 % share on GDP, Slovak government imposed the second lowest taxes upon its economy in 2007. Share of direct taxes on GDP has been the lowest in the whole union.
The Fitch rating agency on Tuesday downgraded Greece’s long-term debt ratings as well as those on four of the country’s largest banks, describing prospects for Greek public finances as negative. Greece is now exposed to the risk of losing the small amount of credibility it still has in front of its creditors. The concerns are growing about its ability to pay its huge public debt, estimated to 110% of GDP and budget deficit above 12.7% of GDP. A look at the evolution of the external debt of Greece is illustrating the concern of credit rating agencies and international financial markets:
Super Size It? A Rationale Against Feeding the Leviathan – Julia Toser
The threat of fiscal harmonization – Massimiliano Trovato