The Government has in any case already announced that it will not in fact apply this increase, but will instead replace it with other, as yet unspecified, measures to reduce expenditure and improve tax collection. In the period 2020-21, structural net borrowing is expected to remain unchanged at the level estimated for 2019.
The Government intends to resume the path of adjustment in 2022, the first year after the end of the planning horizon; this could be brought forward, but only if GDP and employment return to their pre-crisis levels before the end of 2021. 2.