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To promote transparency and provide information, the Federal Planning Bureau regularly publishes the methods and results of its works. The publications are organised in different series, such as Outlooks, Working Papers and Planning Papers. Some reports can be consulted here, along with the Short Term Update newsletters that were published until 2015. You can search our publications by theme, publication type, author and year.
The results of this report show that the average pension of women is lower than that of men: in december 2017 the average gross pension of women aged 65 and older was 1469 euros, compared to 1920 euros for men. The gender pension gap thus equals 24%. The fact that this gap is not higher can to an important extent be attributed to the existence of derived rights. Without derived rights the gap would be 50%.
Reports - REP_12783 (fr), (nl),
For the projection of social sustainability indicators, the Federal Planning Bureau uses the dynamic microsimulation model MIDAS, which has recently undergone a major revision. In this working paper we report a projection up to 2070 of poverty risks and income inequality among the elderly, pensioners and the population under 65 years, in a scenario with current pension policies and projected demographic and socio-economic evolutions.
Working Papers - Working Paper 03-23 (nl),
On 1 October 2021, the government approved a new five-year Federal Plan for Sustainable Development. This plan is at the heart of federal sustainable development policy and this Working Paper describes the methodology for monitoring its implementation. The results are also presented here for the first time, and this exercise will be repeated every year from this spring onwards. It shows that in just one year, the public services have already reported on the implementation of more than 90% of the measures and that only 30% of the measures are not (yet) in an implementation phase.
Working Papers - Working Paper 04-23 (fr), (nl),
European Regulation No 691/2011 obliges the member states of the European Union to deliver six environmental economic accounts to Eurostat. The accounts concerned are the three accounts that have been obligatory since 2013, the Environmental Taxes by Economic Activity (ETEA), the Air Emissions Accounts (AEA) and the Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounts (EW-MFA), as well as the three accounts that have to be delivered as of 2017, the Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS), the Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA), and the Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA).
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EW-MFA for the period 2008-2021.
Reports - REP_EWMFA2023_12810 (fr), (nl),
European Regulation No 691/2011 obliges the member states of the European Union to deliver six environmental economic accounts. The accounts concerned are the three accounts that have been obligatory since 2013, the Environmental Taxes by Economic Activity (ETEA), the Air Emissions Accounts (AEA) and the Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounts (EW-MFA), as well as three accounts that have to be delivered as of 2017, the Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS), the Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA), and the Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA).
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the ETEA for the period 2008-2021.
Reports - REP_ETEA2023_12809 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - IIS 04 (fr), (nl),
Articles - Article 016 (fr), (nl),
Forecasts & Outlook - Economic outlook 2023-2028 (Feb.) (fr), (nl),
Forecasts & Outlook - Economic outlook 2023 (Feb.) (fr), (nl),
This article presents estimates of mark-ups in different industries within the Belgian market sector over the periods 1997-2008 and 2009-2020. The mark-up allows to evaluate the intensity of competition in a sector. Our results show that, on average, competition is weaker in services than in manufacturing. Within manufacturing, there is little variation across sectors and over time. Within services, mark-up variations are more pronounced.
Articles - Article 015 (fr), (nl),
This report presents over eighty indicators and includes an assessment of their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015. It provides a detailed overview of Belgium's international position and of the differences between women and men. Finally, it analyses the evolution of Belgium's current well-being, among others in the context of (the end of) the Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on the well-being of future generations and the rest of the world.
Reports - OPREP202301 (fr), (nl),
Belgium's population growth in 2022 is exceptionally high (+104 000 inhabitants) according to the new demographic projections. In the long term, however, the increase is less dynamic than in the past thirty years. Population growth in Flanders will remain relatively similar to that of recent decades. Wallonia is experiencing significantly lower growth than previously. In Brussels, the population will hardly increase in projection.
Forecasts & Outlook - SHORT_DP22 (fr), (nl),
The European Commission released on 9 November 2022 a proposal to reform the framework for Member States' fiscal surveillance. The proposed new framework is based on risks to debt sustainability. For Belgium, which is highly exposed to these risks, it would imply a rapid and large-scale fiscal consolidation, and would be no less stringent than the fiscal rules previously in force and suspended since Covid-19. The proposal has not yet been adopted and still needs to be negotiated with the Member States.
Reports - REP_12769 (fr),
MIDAS, the dynamic microsimulation model that focuses on the social sustainability of pensions, has undergone a major revision in recent years to improve the validity of the projections. This Working Paper not only reports on this revision, but also describes some important new modules.
Working Papers - Working Paper 02-23 (nl), (nl),
In international agreements, countries are considered responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions linked to their production activities. The carbon footprint provides an alternative assessment of this responsibility by attributing emissions to the country where the goods and services are consumed. This study presents the production-based CO2 emissions and the carbon footprint of the three Belgian regions for the year 2015. The production-based CO2 emissions are derived from the regional air emission accounts developed for this study, while the regional carbon footprints are calculated based on an input-output model and input-output data that include CO2 emissions. According to the results, the carbon footprint exceeds production-based emissions for all three regions. This implies that their contribution to global CO2 emissions is larger from a consumption perspective than from a production perspective.
Working Papers - Working Paper 01-23 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EPEA for the years 2014-2020.
Reports - REP_EPEA2022_12739 (fr), (nl),
Whereas regional subsidies and some tax incentives appear to encourage firms to increase their investment in R&D activities, some incentives provided through corporate income taxation seem to have no additionality effect or even result in the crowding out of firms’ own R&D expenditures. As these incentives claim the lion’s share of the rapidly rising budgetary cost of public support to business R&D, the efficiency of tax incentives for R&D activities could be increased by introducing a cap on the total amount of public support that companies can receive, as also suggested by an international study.
Reports - REP_12721 (en),
A new evaluation of public support to R&D in Belgium shows that regional subsidies and the federal partial exemption from payment of the withholding tax for researchers may have helped to increase R&D expenditure in Belgium. The results are less positive for some benefits granted by the federal government through corporate income taxation. As these tax benefits account for the lion's share of the rapidly increasing budgetary costs of public support for R&D, the efficiency of public support could be increased.
Articles - Article 014 (fr), (nl),
This report (written at the request of the limited Council of Ministers) examines the budgetary impact as well as the consequences for the pensions of men and women of the pension agreement of July 19th, 2022. This agreement contains three measures :
Reports - REP_CEP15_12689 (mix),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EGSS for the years 2014-2020.
Reports - REP_EGSS2022_12712 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - EMAS_012_1 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - IIS 03 (fr), (nl),
There are only eight years left to realise the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The report presents an analysis of the Federal Plan on Sustainable Development adopted in 2021. It provides a detailed overview of Belgium's current international position and the differences between women and men. Finally, it presents approaches for integrating quantitative elements into sustainable development scenarios.
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2022 (fr), (nl),
In Belgium, the Law on Fiscal and Social Greening of Mobility of 25 November 2021 eliminates corporate tax deductibility for all company cars except those with zero CO2 emissions. The main effect of the tax reform is an accelerated electrification of the company car fleet and an accelerated decline in CO2 emissions. Compared to the no-reform scenario, the reform leads to an increase in net tax revenues of about 1 billion euro on an annual basis.
Working Papers - Working Paper 06-22 (en), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2008-2020.
Reports - REP_AEA2022_12697 (fr), (nl),