Digging deeper – the importance of education and openness to change and new ideas  So, good policies, sound institutions and some luck go far in explaining the strong performance of the Nordic countries. However, by digging a bit deeper, we can see also other common features that have played a crucially important role.
But the costs of the crisis continue to rise and, as we move forward, the form of fiscal support will likely change: discretionary spending may increase, automatic stabilisers will kick in further and – in more severe scenarios – the loan guarantees supporting firms could be called.