The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), an independent body established in 2014, is responsible for analysing and assessing macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts by the government and for verifying compliance with national and European fiscal rules. The PBO contributes to ensuring the transparency and reliability of the public accounts at the service of Parliament and the general public.
The PBO, established in accordance with the provisions of the law on the implementation of the balanced budget principle and in implementation of the new European economic governance arrangements, is one of the independent budget monitoring institutions recently established in numerous OECD countries (useful links).
The PBO analyses, verifies and assesses:
- macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts and macroeconomic impact of the most important legislative measures; specifically, it validates the government’s macroeconomic forecasts set out in the planning documents (validation letters);
- developments in the public finances, including by sub-sector, and compliance with fiscal rules;
- the activation and use of a number of mechanisms envisaged in the new European framework of fiscal rules (specifically, the correction mechanism and authorisation in the case of exceptional circumstances);
- the long-term sustainability of the public finances;
- additional economic and financial issues associated with performing the above duties, with an emphasis on disseminating information on the economy and the public finances (Infographics).
The PBO operates in accordance with an annual work plan, preparing analyses and reports, some of which at the request of the parliamentary committees responsible for public finance matters.
