ABSTRACT
We first examine the PA’s budget from 1996 to 2003, highlighting some of the key structural characteristics of the budget and placing it in a regional and international context. We then consider the challenges facing a new Palestinian state in designing a fiscal programme that is consistent with the needs and aspirations of the new state and those it represents. In doing so we focus both on the ‘structural’ aspects of fiscal policy design-issues of the structure of taxation, public expenditure, debt and the institutions of fiscal management-and on the question of the macroeconomic sustainability of the fiscal stance.
