Читать книгу The Political Economy of the BRICS Countries - Группа авторов - Страница 26

The heterogeneity is reflected in fiscal positions of the governments as well. Depending on oil prices, Russia has been the only economy in this block that had experienced fiscal surplus during the first of the first decade of 2000s (Figure 4(a)). The fiscal situation seemed to have deteriorated both in South Africa and China; India continued to remain at the bottom in terms of general government borrowing. While public debt has not been a cause of concern in all these five countries, due to presence of petroleum resources Russian debt is least among them (Figure 4(b)). In terms of a timeline, Brazilian fiscal policy is often tracked in terms a shift from a period of fiscal consolidation (1999–2005) to a phase of fiscal expansion (2005–2014) (Octavio and Gobetti, 2017).

Figure 4:Fiscal position in the BRICS economies.

Source: Calculated from World Economic Outlook Database, April 2018, IMF.