World Bank Urges Laos to Raise VAT to Combat Inflation and Debt Crisis

• The World Bank has urged Laos to increase taxes to address high inflation and currency depreciation.
• Specifically, they recommend raising the value-added tax rate and increasing taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.
• The World Bank also suggests that the government should allocate more funds to healthcare and education for future development.
• Laos’ economy has been struggling with rising prices, low foreign investment, and a high public debt, which is mostly owed to China.
• The debt has destabilized the country’s macroeconomy and hindered economic growth.

Source: tobaccoreporter.com

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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