In retrospect, if those countries had allocated the external financial resources toward more productive investment and investment leading to a shift to higher-value-added economic structure, they could have improved their economic productivity and enhanced international competitiveness. Subsequently, this would have enabled those countries to repay their external debt by gradually shifting to current account surpluses.
Fiscal consolidation, by definition, is a long-term game. In the short-term political costs may exceed benefits; in the long-term, the economic and political benefits far outweigh any costs. It is this congruence of economic and political virtue that must inform fiscal consolidation. Summing-up: India growth story intact 67. Let me now sum up.