OECD Pensions Outlook 2016, to be published on Monday 5 December at 12p.m. Paris time, assesses policy issues regarding strengthening pension systems and, in particular, funded pension plans.

Funded Pension arrangements, in particular defined contribution ones, are playing a growing role in complementing retirement income from public sources in OECD countries and worldwide. However, their design needs to be improved, according to a new OECD report.

This paper looks at the application of behavioural economics in the area of financial consumer protection and how numerous governments are testing and implementing its application for policies promoting financial consumer protection. It highlights the opportunity for behavioural economics to help provide cost-efficient ways of making policy more effective at promoting positive outcomes for consumers.

13/05/2017 - With the frequency and scope of cyber incidents growing significantly, this report provides an overview of the market for cyber insurance as well as the current challenges in terms of data availability, quantification of cyber risks, awareness and misunderstanding about coverage. It identifies potential policy measures to address some of the main challenges to the development of an effective cyber insurance market.

Insurance is invisible yet it is everywhere. It is intimately linked to how people live their lives, grow their businesses, save and invest their incomes, anticipate what is essential to them and how they protect themselves against risk.

Drawing on data presented in the 2017 OECD Business and Finance Outlook, this article looks at some of the forces influencing recent economic developments and asks what can be done to ensure a “fairer” global economy.

The global economy is expected to pick up moderately but greater efforts are needed to ensure that the benefits from growth and globalisation are more widely shared, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

This report provides a series of policy recommendations aimed at enhancing the contribution of the cyber insurance market to managing this increasingly prevalent risk. The report examines the current state of the market and the obstacles that are impeding the market from reaching its full potential

With the growth of cybercrime, and intensive media coverage of privacy breaches and ransomware attacks over the last year, could complacency about cyber risks soon be a thing of the past? Bill Below and Leigh Wolfrom of the OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs look at some of the challenges to insuring cyber risk.

22-23 February 2018, Paris - The potential role of the nascent cyber insurance market in enhancing cyber resilience is increasingly being recognised by policy makers. This conference provided an opportunity to exchange knowledge and share experiences on addressing the challenges impeding the development of the cyber insurance market.

Behavioural insights have the potential to enhance the effectiveness of financial literacy and investor education initiatives. This IOSCO/OECD report explores the extent to which they are being used, reviews the available literature and presents various approaches for policy makers and practitioners to consider when seeking to change financial behaviour.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, was in Vienna on 7-8 September 2018 to attend the Eurogroup Meeting / Informal Meeting of Economic and Financial Affairs Ministers (ECOFIN).

12-13 November 2018, São Paulo, Brazil - A series of events addressing the most recent trends, opportunities and challenges in financial education will be co-hosted by the OECD and CVM Brazil.

While China’s overall debt-to-GDP ratio is not particularly high, its non-financial corporate debt relative to GDP is higher than in other major economies.

An overview of the long-term care situation in Belgium is available here.

This report provides, for the Flemish community of Belgium, an independent analysis of major issues facing the educational evaluation and assessment framework, current policy initiatives, and possible future approaches.

This note is taken from Chapter 2 of Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2012.

Gains in female education attainment have contributed to a worldwide increase in women’s participation in the labour force, but considerable gaps remain in working hours, conditions of employment and earnings.  More specific data for Beligum are available in this country note.

The global crisis led to a smaller increase in the unemployment rate than in most other OECD countries as employment has been sustained through intensive use of reduced working time schemes.

OECD Report on Mental Health and Work in Belgium to launch on 29 January 2013 in Brussels

Belgian companies, mutualities and employment services should be more proactive in helping people with mental health problems stay in the workplace or find a job, according to a new OECD report.

This publication looks at regional innovation in Wallonia, Belgium, by examining the political context, governance issues and the role of innovation in the economy, along with regional innovation strategies to promote growth.

This paper discusses the results of the 2011-2012 OECD LEED study of measuring green growth in the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg). The study paid particular attention to the challenges of measuring the transition to a low-carbon economy in cross-border areas as they have additional levels of complexity when it comes to measuring and monitoring their low-carbon transition.

Fighting foreign bribery is not a priority in Belgium. Together with the flagrant lack of resources for Belgian law enforcement authorities, this has resulted in very few foreign bribery investigations and prosecutions. In the 14 years since the entry into force of the foreign bribery offence in Belgium, only one case of bribery of foreign public officials has been concluded.

The global economic crisis has had a profound impact on people’s well-being, reaching far beyond the loss of jobs and income, and affecting citizens’ satisfaction with their lives and their trust in governments, according to a new OECD report.

Highlights for Belgium from Pensions at a Glance which is a comprehensive examination of pension systems in OECD and selected non-OECD countries looking at recent trends in retirement and working at older ages, evolving life expectancy, design of pension systems, pension entitlements, and private pensions.

Note summarising the performance of Belgium in PISA 2012

This note presents key findings for Belgium from Society at a Glance 2014 - OECD Social indicators. This 2014 publication also provides a special chapter on: the crisis and its aftermath: a “stress test” for societies and for social policies.

Country profiles highlight some key findings from TALIS 2013 for individual countries and economies

According to a new OECD report, variation in rates of health care activity across geographic areas in countries is a cause for concern. Wide variation suggests that whether or not you will receive a particular health service depends to a very great extent on where you live within a country.

This publication highlights new evidence on policies to support job creation, bringing together the latest research on labour market, entrepreneurship and local economic development policy to help governments support job creation in the recovery. It also includes a set of country pages featuring, among other things, new data on skills supply and demand at the level of smaller OECD regions (TL3).

The Belgian economy has returned to growth and continues scoring well on broader measures of well-being, but further reforms will be needed to secure fiscal sustainability while promoting employment and competitiveness, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Belgium 2015.

Going for Growth 2015: Key findings for Belgium

Belgium is making a laudable push to direct more development aid to the poorest countries, but to deliver on this it needs to set firm deadlines, make its aid programme more flexible, and should reverse a decline in overall aid, according to an OECD Review.

The 2015 edition introduces more detailed analysis of participation in early childhood and tertiary levels of education. The report also examines first generation tertiary-educated adults’ educational and social mobility, labour market outcomes for recent graduates, and participation in employer-sponsored formal and/or non-formal education.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has serious concerns regarding Belgium’s limited efforts to comply with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Belgium shows average health outcomes compared to other OECD countries. Life expectancy at birth is 80.7 years, just above the OECD average. Quality of care is fair, standing again near the OECD average. Health expenditure at 10.2% of GDP is higher than the OECD average of 1.3% points in 2013. Health policy in Belgium relies on shared responsibility of both the federal authorities and federated entities (regions and communities).

This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for Belgium. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

This country note presents student performance in science, reading and mathematics, and measures equity in education in Belgium. The interactive charts allow you to compare results with other countries participating in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Unemployment in Belgium fell back to its pre-crisis level sooner than in most other OECD countries, but then rose significantly again in 2012 and has only recently begun to decline again. At 6.8% in April, it was still above its pre-crisis level and 0.9 percentage points above the OECD average.

A combination of market-based policies and a redistributive welfare state have boosted Belgium’s per-capita GDP to well above the average of OECD countries and raised well-being, according to a new OECD report.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, was in Brussels on Monday 16th October 2017 to attend the General Assembly of the World Steel Association, where he delivered a keynote address.

This note presents selected country highlights from the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2017 with a specific focus on digital trends among all themes covered.

This note presents marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that summarise the tax system’s impact on the incentives to make an additional investment in a particular type of savings. By comparing METRs on different types of household savings, we can gain insights into which assets or savings types receive the most favourable treatment from the tax system.

This country note for Belgium provides detail on the proportion of CO2 emissions from energy use subject to different effective carbon rates (ECR), as well as on the level and components of average ECRs in each of the six economic sectors (road transport, off-road transport, industry, agriculture and fishing, residential & commercial, and electricity).

The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and policy recommendations to help countries address these challenges

The Belgian standard VAT rate is 21.0%, which is above the OECD average. The average VAT/GST¹ standard rate in the OECD was 19.3% as of 1 January 2019. The previous standard VAT rate in Belgium was 20.5% in 1995. It changed to the current level in 1996. Belgium applies reduced VAT rates of 0%, 6% and 12% to a number of goods and services.

Risks That Matter 2018 Country Highlights: Belgium

This country note explains how Belgium taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Belgium increased by 0.3 percentage points from 44.5% in 2017 to 44.8% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.