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The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that rules to keep budget deficits in check can help improve member countries' finances that have been strained by the global economic crisis.
The Washington-based IMF said it was examining "the evolution" of fiscal rules using a new database spanning the whole fund membership and considering fiscal frameworks that could be adopted as countries emerge from the crisis.
It was part of the IMF’s ongoing analytical research on economic strategies to be adopted after the crisis as requested by the Group of 20 emerging and developed nations.
An IMF report found that almost 80 countries had national or supranational fiscal rules in place in early 2009 aimed at improving fiscal performance and adopting more prudent fiscal policies.
"But the need to address the current global crisis has strained the rules in many cases," it said in the report.
It argued that "going forward and looking beyond the crisis, rules-based frameworks can be useful in anchoring expectations regarding fiscal sustainability, but they have to reflect country circumstances."
The IMF said interest in fiscal rules was likely to increase further as countries sought to develop "exit" strategies to meet challenges arising from the financial crisis.
The financial crisis stemming from a US home mortgage meltdown led to many countries adopting fiscal stimulus programs amounting to trillions of dollars to jolt their economies from recession.
