COVID-19 Interventions: Impact Assessment & the Pathway to Accrual

The COVID-19 pandemic and government interventions to mitigate its effects have both immediate and on-going financial impacts. The nature and scale of these interventions vary widely across jurisdictions, as will their longer-term impacts. However, the significant fiscal interventions launched by many governments mean that high-quality accrual-based financial reporting is needed now, more than ever, as it provides better information for decision making, improves transparency on how public resources are used, allows citizens to hold decision makers to account, and better positions governments to address the balance sheet impact of the pandemic.