16 November 2017 - The OECD Guidelines on Insurer Governance provide guidance and serve as a reference point for insurers, governmental authorities, and other relevant stakeholders in OECD and non-OECD countries. The Guidelines have been revised and expanded to reflect evolving market practices and updates to international guidance following the financial crisis.

11 December 2017, OECD Paris - The 8th annual OECD high-level breakfast event brings together leading investors and senior government officials for informal, focused dialogue, to examine key developments and identify solutions to enable achievement of NDCs and the two-degree commitment.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, in Buenos Aires, 18-20 March 2018

A new OECD report, the 2018 Business and Finance Outlook, highlights a number of major risks having the potential to disrupt global economic growth. It notes that the gradual normalisation of monetary policy in an environment of growing debt will be a major test of whether the Basel III regulatory reforms have achieved their goal of ensuring safety and soundness in the financial system.

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).

26/10/2018 - The OECD Committee on Financial Markets has confirmed the appointment of Aerdt Houben, Director of the Financial Markets Division at De Nederlandsche Bank, as its Chair.

21/11/2018 - The OECD is currently updating its 1977 Recommendation on Consumer Protection in the field of Consumer Credit to ensure that it remains the relevant international standard. The draft text is available for public comment until 21 December 2018.

07/03/2019 - The OECD Insurance and Private Pensions Committee (IPPC) has confirmed the appointment of Mr Yoshihiro Kawai, Advisor to the Commissioner, Japan Financial Services Agency, as its Chair.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Bucharest on 5-6 April 2019 to attend the Informal Meeting of European Economic and Financial Affairs Ministers (ECOFIN).

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Washington, from 11 to 13 April 2019 to attend a G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, a G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, and the 2019 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will participate in the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Chantilly, on 17-18 July 2019.

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.

The main goal of the Strategy is to strengthen OECD’s contributions to “higher and more inclusive growth in the widest array of countries”, making full use of the OECD evidence-based approaches to improve policy making and economic reform for developing and developed countries.

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.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Brussels on Thursday 13th June to launch the 2013 OECD International Migration Outlook and to hold bilateral meetings with Officials of the European Union.

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

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, attended the OECD Seminar “The Euro area at a crossroads: Policies for growth, jobs and competitiveness” in Brussels on 17 February 2014 at the Council of the European Union, ahead of the regular Eurogroup meeting. At the Seminar, the Secretary-General presented the OECD report “Economic Challenges and Policy Recommendations for the Euro Area”.

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).

Mr Gurría presented the 2015 OECD Economic Survey of Belgium alongside Mr. Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium.

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.

The Co-operative Research Programme (CRP)'s Call for Applications for conference sponsorship and research fellowships for funding in 2019 is now CLOSED. The CRP supports work on sustainable use of natural resources in agriculture, forests, fisheries and food production.

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, was in Brussels on 19 June 2018 to present the 2018 OECD Economic Surveys of the European Union and of the Euro Area.

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.