Resource Dependence and Budget Transparency

The International Budget Partnership today released its 2008 Open Budget Index, a biennial, independent, comparative measure of government budget transparency in 85 countries. This year, for the first time, the report includes data on openness and public accountability in China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to analysis by the Revenue Watch Institute, the 2008 index data confirms a direct connection between the poor performance of many resource-dependent countries and the lack of budget transparency and accountability in the 22 countries considered significant oil and gas producers. Revenue Watch's analysis is presented in a new brief, "Resource Dependence and Budget Transparency" (available for download below), which probes the question of an inevitable link between natural resource abundance and opaque budgeting. The brief was written by Revenue Watch senior economist Antoine Heuty with graduate associate Ruth Carlitz, who also led in the writing of the new Open Budget Index report.

The Revenue Watch Institute is a partner and grantee of the Open Society Institute.

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