Chart 2 presents the ratios relative to nominal GDP of the general government fiscal balance, gross government debt outstanding, and net government debt outstanding.
The GDP ratio of the general government deficit has decreased by 5.6 percentage points from 8.3 percent in fiscal 2012 to 2.7 percent in fiscal 2017, and the GDP ratio of net government debt, which had been increasing sharply, is more or less unchanged at around 121 percent since fiscal 2012.8  7  See Harada Yutaka, "Nihon keizai to seisansei: Special Lecture at a Conference Commemorating Daiwa Institute of Research's 200th Release of Japan's Economic Outlook," Bank of Japan, March 2019.