Raising the deficit is not an option, especially because our public spending level is already one of the highest, if not the highest, in the world.
Our estimate is that in the current year, 2001, our ratio of public spending to GDP amounts to 54%, compared to an average of 42% in 20 of the OECD countries, where all of the individual countries ratio are lower than ours. So what can the government do, given the current slowdown, to help the economy get out of the recession?