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.

Two rounds of the Survey of Adult Skills are under way: Round 1 (2008-13) with 24 participating countries, whose results were released in October 2013, and Round 2 (2012-16) with 9 participating countries, whose results will be released in 2016. A third round is scheduled to begin in May 2014.

These country notes contain indicators which compare the political and institutional frameworks of national governments as well as revenues and expenditures, employment, and compensation. They include a description of government policies on integrity, e-government and open government.

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

Country notes with main key findings of the book and key fact tables: a customised snapshot of a country's educational environment, highlighting the most important issues in the educational landscape.

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

Gender inequality is one of the most primitive and oldest forms of inequality. Sadly, it is still very much a reality in most parts of the world. In many countries women do not have equal access to education, healthcare, safety, work or political decision-making.

Specific country notes have been prepared using data from the database OECD Health Statistics 2015, July 2015 version. The notes are available in PDF format.

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).

Education at a Glance 2016 - Country Notes

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 publication provides detailed country notes on Value Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax (VAT/GST) and excise duty rates in OECD member countries.

This annual publication presents detailed country notes and internationally comparable tax data for all OECD countries from 1965 onwards.

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.

These notes present 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.

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.

Risks That Matter 2018 Country Highlights: Belgium

Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, will be in Brussels on 8 July 2019 to attend the EU Employment and Social Policy Council meeting, where he will present the OECD report on the Economy of Well-Being.

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.

Government at a Glance provides a dashboard of key indicators to help you analyse international comparisons of public sector performance.

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.

The Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr. Angel Gurría, will be in Brussels on 3 February 2020 to present the 2020 OECD Economic Survey of Belgium, alongside Ms. Sophie Wilmès, Prime Minister of Belgium.

Belgium’s tax, labour, pension and education reforms have improved the potential for stronger, sustainable and inclusive growth over the long term. Keeping up this momentum on structural reforms is key to energise the economy and keep it resilient to external risks and uncertainties, according to a new OECD report.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Belgium decreased by 0.5 percentage points from 52.7 in 2018 to 52.2 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Belgium had the highest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

Brunei recorded a government debt equivalent to 2.40 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2018. Government Debt to GDP in Brunei averaged 0.74 percent from 1985 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 3.20 percent in 2014 and a record low of 0 percent in 1986. Generally, Government debt as a percent of GDP is used by investors to measure a country ability to make future payments on its debt, thus affecting the country borrowing costs and government bond yields. This page provides - Brunei Government Debt To GDP - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Brunei recorded a Government Budget deficit equal to 8.60 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2018. Government Budget in Brunei averaged 5.76 percent of GDP from 1990 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 27.90 percent of GDP in 2008 and a record low of -18.30 percent of GDP in 2016. Government Budget is an itemized accounting of the payments received by government (taxes and other fees) and the payments made by government (purchases and transfer payments). A budget deficit occurs when an government spends more money than it takes in. The opposite of a budget deficit is a budget surplus. This page provides - Brunei Government Budget - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Brunei recorded a Current Account surplus of 15.50 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2018. Current Account to GDP in Brunei averaged 38.71 percent from 1985 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 76 percent in 1988 and a record low of 12.90 percent in 2016. The Current account balance as a percent of GDP provides an indication on the level of international competitiveness of a country. Usually, countries recording a strong current account surplus have an economy heavily dependent on exports revenues, with high savings ratings but weak domestic demand. On the other hand, countries recording a current account deficit have strong imports, a low saving rates and high personal consumption rates as a percentage of disposable incomes. This page provides - Brunei Current Account to GDP - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Military Expenditure in Brunei decreased to 336 USD Million in 2018 from 347 USD Million in 2017. Military Expenditure in Brunei averaged 339.31 USD Million from 1984 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 477 USD Million in 2014 and a record low of 210 USD Million in 1984.

Brunei recorded a Current Account surplus of 2791.60 BND Million in 2017. Current Account in Brunei averaged 1892.23 BND Million from 2008 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 2968.50 BND Million in 2014 and a record low of 835.20 BND Million in 2014. Current Account is the sum of the balance of trade (exports minus imports of goods and services), net factor income (such as interest and dividends) and net transfer payments (such as foreign aid). This page provides - Brunei Current Account - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Brunei was last recorded at 31436.90 US dollars in 2018. The GDP per Capita in Brunei is equivalent to 249 percent of the world's average. GDP per capita in Brunei averaged 39887.45 USD from 1974 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 66019.90 USD in 1979 and a record low of 31436.90 USD in 2018. The GDP per capita is obtained by dividing the country’s gross domestic product, adjusted by inflation, by the total population. This page provides - Brunei GDP per capita - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Brunei was last recorded at 71802.50 US dollars in 2018, when adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP). The GDP per Capita, in Brunei, when adjusted by Purchasing Power Parity is equivalent to 404 percent of the world's average. GDP per capita PPP in Brunei averaged 81648.69 USD from 1990 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 86445.70 USD in 1992 and a record low of 71802.50 USD in 2018. The GDP per capita PPP is obtained by dividing the country’s gross domestic product, adjusted by purchasing power parity, by the total population. This page provides - Brunei GDP per capita PPP - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.