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Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2024

image of Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2024

The 2024 edition of Government at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean provides the latest available evidence on public administrations and their performance in the LAC region and compares it to OECD countries. It includes indicators on trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services, as well as evidence on good governance practices in areas such as the policy cycle, budgeting, public procurement, infrastructure planning and delivery, regulatory governance, digital government and open government data. Finally, it provides information on what resources public institutions use and how they are managed, including public finances, public employment, and human resources management. Government at a Glance allows for cross-country comparisons and helps identify trends, best practices, and areas for improvement in the public sector. Governance indicators are especially useful for monitoring and benchmarking governments’ progress in their public sector reforms. Each indicator in the publication is presented in a user‑friendly format, consisting of graphs and/or charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings of the data, and a methodological section on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.

English Also available in: Spanish

General government structural balance

The structural or underlying fiscal balance is the difference between government revenues and expenditures corrected for effects that could be attributed to the economic cycle and one-off events. Removing the effects of economic fluctuations from the figures enables policy makers to identify the underlying trends of economic aggregates and allows them to better assess the sustainability of public finances in the long run. Government revenues tend to decline during economic downturns, as incomes fall. At the same time, public spending tends to increase, as more people claim social assistance or unemployment benefits. Governments may also increase public expenditure to stimulate the economy. All these effects were visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The structural balance is a measure of the budget balance a government would have with its current policies if the economy was operating at its full potential (“potential GDP”).

English Also available in: Spanish

Graphs

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