This public financial management introductory guide summarises the literature on cash management reforms for developing countries. Good cash management ensures public money reaches the right place, at the right time. Reforms to improve cash management in the OECD aim to make this process more efficient, by ensuring that the government’s cash balances are known and invested properly. However, in fragile states or low-income countries, cash management systems are used for a different purpose: to maintain fiscal controls through a process called ‘cash rationing’. Understanding these different objectives will help target the right reforms and the right problems.

This introductory guide is also available in French and Arabic.

Mark Miller and Sierd Hadley