Therefore, at the beginning of the financial crisis, there were views that the effects of the crisis on emerging and commodity-exporting economies would be limited. However, U.S. and Western European financial institutions and investors had been also assuming an important role in intermediating funds to these economies.
But this call for fiscal discipline applies more widely – in all countries the implementation of strong fiscal consolidation efforts is required and effective rules need to be adopted that anchor fiscal prudence in overall budgetary decisions in the future. Third, both competitiveness and fiscal sustainability should be supported by higher productivity growth.