Mid-Year Review

The Mid-Year Review provides a detailed explanation of the state of the budget six months into the budget year.

In order to ensure that programs are being implemented effectively and to identify any emerging problems, the government should conduct a comprehensive mid-year review of the budget’s implementation about six months into the budget year. This review should assess the state of the economy relative to the initial macroeconomic forecast and update the economic projections for the remainder of the year. The MYR should also provide updated estimates of expenditure, revenue, and debt, reflecting the impact of actual experience to date and revised projections for the full fiscal year. Revised estimates in the MYR should reflect both economic and technical changes as well as new policy proposals, including the reallocation of funds between administrative units, with a comprehensive explanation of any estimate adjustments. Issues such as cost increases due to inflation or any unexpected events should be identified and appropriate counter measures should be proposed. The public release of a Mid-Year Review is intended to promote accountability and sound management.

It is important to distinguish a Mid-Year Review from the In-Year Report that is issued six months into the budget year. An In-Year Report issued at six months cannot substitute for a Mid-Year Review. An In-Year Report typically records actual expenditure and revenue to date but does not include a discussion of how these trends will affect the estimates of full-year expenditure or some of the other detailed budget execution analysis that is typically found in a Mid-Year Review.

Assessing the public availability of the MYR
Publicly available budget documents are defined as those documents that are published on the website of the public authority issuing the document within the time frame specified in the OBS methodology and that all citizens are able to obtain free of charge. (See the Open Budget Survey Guidelines on Public Availability of Budget Documents.) This is a change from previous rounds of the Open Budget Survey: now at minimum documents must be made available on the Internet and free of charge to be considered publicly available.

The OBS methodology requires that for an MYR to be considered publicly available, it must be made available to the public no later than three months after the reporting period ends (i.e., three months after the midpoint of the fiscal year). If the MYR is not released to the public at least three months after the reporting period ends, option “d” applies. Option “d” should also be chosen for documents that are produced for internal purposes only (that is, produced but never released to the public) or are not produced at all. Some governments may publish budget documents further in advance than the latest possible dates outlined above. In these instances, researchers should choose options “a” or “b,” depending on the date of publication identified for the MYR. See Question MYR-2 for more information.

Questions on the MYR in the OBS

 * Questions on the MYR in the OBS