2. pants

Expenditure restraint in the

first nine months of 2001 helped contain the general government

deficit to 1.4 percent of GDP, and all related performance

criteria under the program were observed with a comfortable

margin. The government has largely complied with the public

sector reform measures under the program: First, it submitted to

Parliament amendments to the excise tax law and the pension law.

Second, most accounts of budget-financed institutions were

brought inside the Treasury. And third, the 2002 budget law

explanations included (i) annexes covering auxiliary information

on contingent liabilities, tax expenditures and quasi

fiscal-activities, (ii) a comprehensive presentation of

forecasting assumptions, and (iii) detailed information on

financing. However, the implementing regulations for the new law

on public agencies have not yet been adopted, but we will strive

to do so by mid-December 2001.