Still, central bankers are required to think-long term and sometimes that means taking decisions that won’t be welcomed at the time but, in the longer-term, are in the public interest. (Assistance in the preparation of this text was provided by Nils Bjorksten, David Archer and other RBNZ staff.) BIS Review 7/2004  9
In Greece, for example, the structural primary balance is estimated to have improved by more than 14 percentage points of GDP between 2009 and 2012. The improvement was 5.7 percentage points for Portugal, 4.3 for Ireland, 3.9 for Spain and 3.6 for Italy. Past and current consolidation efforts are gradually bearing fruit.