Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2019 examines the role of tax policy as a tool for driving progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. One way to strengthen collection is to address the challenges of taxing the rapidly growing digital economy. Tax policy can also be used to shift production and consumption patterns to encourage decarbonization of the economy and support improvements in public health. Lastly, the document analyses the constraints on domestic resource mobilization caused by fiscal incentives and how, effectively geared towards investment, these incentives could instead foster sustainable and inclusive development.

This edition of Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean coincides with an important milestone: the thirtieth anniversary of the Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Over the past 30 years, this seminar has become a key fixture on the agenda of fiscal policy events in the region.Throughout these three decades, the successive editions of the seminar have served as a forum for national authorities, tax experts and officials from international organizations to discuss the performance, challenges and opportunities of fiscal policy,and it has enhanced policy design and management in the individual countries.

Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Over the past 30 years, this seminar has become a key fixture on the agenda of fiscal policy events in the region.Throughout these three decades, the successive editions of the seminar have served as a forum for national authorities, tax experts and officials from international organizations to discuss the performance, challenges and opportunities of fiscal policy,and it has enhanced policy design and management in the individual countries.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has generated a health, human and economic crisis without precedent in the past century. The region has responded rapidly, adopting packages of fiscal measures of diverse magnitude and scope. In this context, fiscal policy must play a key role in mitigating the human and economic impact in the short term, while also continuing to provide the impulse for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in a post-COVID-19 world. As well as analysing the fiscal policy challenges of the current crisis, the Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2020 provides a broad overview of the problems of tax evasion in the region. It looks at the challenges of measuring tax evasion and the measures the countries are taking to tackle it. It also compares the functional allocation of public expenditure in the countries of the region, as a factor that has implications for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The region is facing a complex economic situation, marked by slowing growth, rising inflation, interest rate hikes and volatility in international markets. This context puts pressure on public finances, compounded by increasing demands for social welfare, investment and environmental sustainability, which pose fiscal policy challenges. The Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022 proposes a fiscal policy design that would help to drive sustainable development, by strengthening tax collection and making tax structures more progressive, and giving a strategic orientation to public spending to turn it into an instrument of development. The report analyses the fiscal trends observed in 2021, which included an upturn in tax receipts and a slowdown in public spending that resulted in smaller fiscal deficits. It also examines fiscal rules and the mechanisms used to ease them during the pandemic, proposing a rethink of these rules aimed at pro-growth fiscal policy. Lastly, it studies the fiscal frameworks applied to hydrocarbon production and mining with a view to maximizing their contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This publication examines the social impact of an unprecedented crisis.

In 2022, the fiscal situation in Latin America and the Caribbean was characterized by rising tax revenues and declining in public spending, resulting in smaller fiscal deficits. Nevertheless, public debt remains high. Against this backdrop, this edition of the Fiscal Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean proposes a fiscal policy for growth, redistribution and productive transformation. It examines options for strengthening personal income tax, to boost its revenues and redistributive potential. In a context of mounting pressure on public spending, it is vital to take strategic approach, to make spending more effective in closing social gaps. This report therefore proposes a new methodology for identifying, measuring and classifying public spending related to gender equality, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants and persons with disabilities.