Restoring Fiscal Discipline for Poverty Reduction in Peru: A Public Expenditure Review

by World Bank Group

The purpose of this report is to provide diagnoses and policy recommendation in public expenditure management in Peru. The introductory chapter of the book provides a synthesis of Peru's public expenditure reform agenda from the Bank's perspective. Chapter II-IV examine the core functions of the public expenditure management. Chapters V-VIII explore selected themes such as the decentralization of public administration and the social sectors; civil service reform; governance and corruption; and mining and fiscal environmental issues. The report does not attempt to provide full coverage of all areas affected by public expenditure. The book deliberately focuses on social sectors spending and leaves aside infrastructure and other sectors that have been the subject for more specific sector studies in previous years.

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2003

About the author

The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and most famous development bank in the world and is an observer at the United Nations Development Group. The bank is based in Washington, D.C. and provided around $61 billion in loans and assistance to "developing" and transition countries in the 2014 fiscal year. The bank's stated mission is to achieve the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity. Its five organizations are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The World Bank's (the IBRD and IDA's) activities are focused on developing countries, in fields such as human development (e.g. education, health), agriculture and rural development (e.g. irrigation and rural services), environmental protection (e.g. pollution reduction, establishing and enforcing regulations), infrastructure (e.g. roads, urban regeneration, and electricity), large industrial construction projects, and governance (e.g. anti-corruption, legal institutions development). The IBRD and IDA provide loans at preferential rates to member countries, as well as grants to the poorest countries. Loans or grants for specific projects are often linked to wider policy changes in the sector or the country's economy as a whole. For example, a loan to improve coastal environmental management may be linked to development of new environmental institutions at national and local levels and the implementation of new regulations to limit pollution, or not, such as in the World Bank financed constructions of paper mills along the Rio Uruguay in 2006.