BIS Review 72/2009  7  An exit strategy is a comprehensive programme to withdraw and neutralise measures taken during the financial crisis, without causing any harm to the economy. If they have no welldefined exit strategy, governments may get bogged down and the positive impact of the measures taken may be undermined.
A well thought-out exit strategy is needed to reassure economic agents that a timely restoration of the level playing field in the different sectors of the economy is the ultimate objective. As such, an exit strategy needs to contain clear criteria about the timing of the withdrawal of the financial support and the reversal of the fiscal stimuli.