Both the International Monetary Fund and the
European Commission emphasise the importance of autonomous bodies
compiling the key statistics and the estimates of the macroeconomic
parameters to be used in drawing up the budget.
The law of 21 December 1994 established the
National Accounts Institute (NAI), which coordinates the preparation of
the key statistics and the macroeconomic projections. The statistics are
compiled by:
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The National Bank of Belgium (national and
regional accounts, foreign trade statistics, financial accounts)
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The Federal Planning Bureau (short-term forecasts,
the economic budget, the input/output tables)
The two institutions draw up the national accounts.
The NAI’s Board of Directors comprises
representatives of the National Bank of Belgium, the Federal Planning
Bureau and the FPS Economic Affairs. In addition, a guidance committee has
been set up for the national accounts, and two scientific committees, one
for the national accounts and the other for the economic budget.
The economic budget measures all the macroeconomic
parameters which the government uses as the basis for drawing up its
budget. It is prepared by the Federal Planning Bureau, submitted to the
scientific committee on the economic budget, and approved by the Board of
Directors of the NAI.
This method, which involves various autonomous
bodies in the preparation of the economic budget via their representation
on the Board of Directors or the scientific committee, guarantees good
quality forecasts unaffected by political influence.
The government takes the budget estimates as the
starting point when drawing up the budget. Sometimes, the government makes
provision for cyclical buffers to take account of abnormally high
uncertainty regarding future growth or interest rates.
