The Advisory Board of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) met this Monday to analyse the main actions of the institution in 2023 and its plans for 2024. This is the second meeting that´s been held since last March when the nine members of the Board renewed their offices and Rafael Bengoa, a doctor specialising in management and public health, joined to strengthen the institution’s commitment to evaluating such cross-cutting policies as health.
The President opened the meeting by sharing the main actions developed by AIReF in the second half of 2023, a unique year dominated by significant economic and institutional uncertainty. In the external context, 2023 has been a transitional year towards a new framework of fiscal rules yet to be defined. Furthermore, at the national level, various electoral processes have influenced AIReF’s activity and the budget planning of the whole General Government Sector.
Subsequently, the Director of the Economic Analysis Division, Esther Gordo, assessed the proposed reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, still in the negotiation phase and shared the work underway on total factor productivity, as well as on the impact of inflation on fiscal consolidation. For his part, the Director of the Budget Analysis Division, Ignacio Fernández-Huertas, presented the institution’s medium-term fiscal outlook, and the Director of the Public Spending Division, José María Casado, provided an overview of the evaluations carried out in the last half-year by AIReF and the evaluations underway.
The Board, which meets in plenary sessions at least twice a year, is made up of the President of AIReF, the Steering Committee – made up of the Division Directors – and the ten experts appointed as Board members, professionals of recognised national and international prestige in the areas of budgetary, economic and financial analysis and policy evaluation. These experts are Javier Andrés, Rafael Bengoa, Samuel Bentolila, Antonio Cabrales, Olga Cantó, Álvaro Escribano, Beatriz González, Eckhard Janeba, Francisco Pedraja and Eva Senra.
The Board is exclusively of a deliberative and technical advisory nature on issues that the President submits for consultation, directly related to the exercise of the powers legally entrusted to AIReF and of particular relevance to the institution. This Board has a predominantly technical nature, without excluding the possibility of also seeking strategic advice.
Board members are appointed from among professionals of recognised prestige for two years, renewable for successive periods. They act with full independence and autonomy in exercising their functions and can request any information they deem necessary. In addition to plenary sessions, board members maintain an ongoing dialogue with AIReF on lines of analysis, tools and methodologies subject to jointly defined advice.