Use Q-CRAFT to build and explain a fiscal comparison
Q-CRAFT, the Quantitative Climate Risk Assessment Fiscal Tool, connects long-run growth assumptions and climate scenarios to government finances. This companion explains how to run the Explorer and assess what its results support.
Choose the data, check the fiscal baseline, compare scenarios, and retain a result you can explain. The output is a conditional projection. Its value depends on the assumptions and the question you ask.
- Debt dynamicsGrowth, financing costs and the primary balance determine the debt path.
- Build the baselinePopulation, productivity, prices and fiscal assumptions extend the medium-term data.
- Add climate effectsProductivity changes affect GDP, revenue and spending, then debt.
Complete your first run
- Open the Explorer and select your country. Use Current for the refreshed data or Verified to compare with the published workbook. Read the dates shown beside the run. See what differs between the modes.
- Inspect the baseline. Compare starting debt and fiscal figures with country sources using the same definition and period. Look for a debt floor, rule response or implausible spending path before interpreting the climate gap. Use the five baseline checks.
- Review the assumptions. Open each control’s context and record the reason for your choices, including retained defaults. The settings guide explains which fields are active and when they affect results.
- Compare one scenario at a stated year. Read both its GDP effect and its debt-ratio difference. Change spending rigidity while holding the climate scenario fixed, then explain why the debt result changes. This tests a fiscal assumption. It does not estimate an adaptation programme’s return.
- Write down the finding and its limits. Name the country, data mode, settings, scenario, comparison year and scenario start. Explain the transmission through GDP and the primary balance. Flag evidence still to check.
- Export and reopen. The Export tab offers a packet with the run file, data and readable outputs. Save it, then import the run file and check its identity and settings. Read the export and replay guidance.
Choose the reference you need
IMF workbook and updated dataVersions, dates and the forecast-to-model transition.Understand the modelThe equations and the fiscal climate mechanism.Choose the settingsAll twelve controls and the judgments they require.Assess and save a resultBaseline checks, interpretation, export and feedback.Run the official Excel workbookDownloads and the corresponding worksheet sequence.
About this companion
This is the operating companion for the refreshed Explorer. The longer workshop course and its worked examples are being revised separately. Teal Insights develops the Explorer as an independent implementation of the IMF model. The IMF workbook and User Guide remain the primary references, with the dated differences explained here.