solution

A two-part budget approval process. Some countries require the government to present a medium-term fiscal framework and annual budget aggregates to the legislature for a pre-budget debate around midyear of the year before the new budget year. Other countries require the annual budget aggregates – revenues, total expenditure and new borrowing – to be approved prior to a second parliamentary round, in which the detailed expenditure estimates are approved. Such two-part budget approval processes have the merit of focusing the legislature first on the main aggregates of the overall fiscal strategy and second on the detailed expenditure programs. The BSL can incorporate such a procedure, especially in countries where “top-down” budgeting15 is considered essential for achieving fiscal consolidation.