FISKÁLNÍ PRAVIDLA V ZEMÍCH VISEGRÁDSKÉ ČTYŘKY

Recently the popularity of fiscal rules has been increasing also due to the impact of the macroeconomic and financial shocks on fiscal sustainability. This paper reviews supranational and national fiscal rules implemented in the Visegrad countries (V4). Namely, we base the review and comparison of fiscal rules on the existing literature and the empirical data from the European Commission. According to the Fiscal Rule Strength Index developed by the European Commission, Poland’s debt rule as of 1997 received the highest ranking. Poland also received the highest score based on the aggregated Fiscal Rules Index in 2009. The most influential in this respect is the application of an early adjustment mechanism which is triggered once the debt to GDP ratio exceeds 50%. Empirical analysis showed that effectiveness of fiscal rules differs across selected groups of countries.