Xavier Debrun is an advisor in the Research Department of the National Bank of Belgium. He spent most of his 20-year professional career in the Fiscal Affairs and Research Departments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC. Prior to joining the IMF in 2000, Xavier obtained a Ph.D. in International Economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and was a Post-Doctoral fellow in the Economics Department of Harvard University. In 2006-07, he was a Fellow at Bruegel—Brussels’ leading think tank on European economic issues. He regularly teaches graduate students in Geneva and Louvain and his research interests include international policy coordination, the economics of monetary unions, and macro-fiscal issues, including debt sustainability assessments and the stabilizing role of fiscal policy. His work has been disseminated in top-tier professional journals, IMF flagship reports, and conference volumes. He led many technical assistance missions for the IMF in relation to the design and operation of fiscal policy rules, macro-fiscal forecasting, and the introduction of independent fiscal institutions.