Despite this achievement, we have not yet returned to the debt-to-GDP ratio that we had in the year 2000 - 87 percent - and in international comparison, we still have a very high debtto-GDP ratio. In most OECD countries, this ratio varies between 30 percent and 70 percent. But why should the debt-to-GDP ratio concern us so much?
Firstly, because this situation will not allow the government to pursue an anti-cyclical budgetary policy; secondly, our heavy burden of public debt encumbers the government with the heavy costs of interest rate payments - reaching up to 15 percent of the government budget, the second largest single item after defense spending.