Fiscal council

A fiscal council is an independent body set up by a government to evaluate its expenditure and tax policy.

Fiscal councils evaluate government's fiscal policies, plans and performance publicly and independently, against macroeconomic objectives related to the long-term sustainability of public finances, short-to-medium-term macroeconomic stability, and other official objectives.

Fiscal councils, such as the United Kingdom's Office for Budget Responsibility, have been criticised for mostly advising from the perspective of neoclassical economics and advocating for balanced-budgets and small government, to the detriment of heterodox economic approaches based on the real economy and more interventionist New Keynesian approaches to the business cycle.

High budget deficits have aggravated crises like the European debt crisis.

Voters may favour fiscal deficits because they benefit from tax cuts and public spending increases, and only bear part of the cost, the rest being borne by future generations.