Frequent recourse to large one-off operations in a number of OECD countries has undermined the
accuracy of cyclically adjusted fiscal balances as a measure of both the sustainability of public finance and
the fiscal stance. This paper first provides detailed information on the nature and amount of these one-offs
for 9 OECD countries. The paper then presents a new indicator – the “underlying” fiscal balance – which
effectively eliminates the impact of one-offs and cyclical developments. One-offs are derived as the
deviations from trend in net capital transfers, i.e. from widely available national account data. This
approach provides a consistent treatment of one-offs both across countries and over time, avoiding the
potential information biases which could result from an individual identification of one-offs.
