The consolidation of the public finances was also postponed for too long; in the face of demographic pressure on important expenditure items, the priorities for the allocation of resources were not clearly set. In 2007 public expenditure excluding interest payments was 43 per cent of GDP, two percentage points more than in 1997; the primary surplus had contracted by more than three points.
If the current overall and primary deficit ratios were maintained, the two high debt new member countries referred to above would move even further away from the 60% reference value. Three others would break the ceiling very soon.