RBA management asked for an update on progress at NPA in early 2007, and the NPA Board appropriately sought a paper from management on dealings with sales agents. After considering that paper, the NPA Board decided that an audit should be undertaken of past practices and compliance. That audit raised several very concerning things.
At the end of the 1990s the public debt represented the same proportion of GDP in Italy and in Belgium, 114 per cent. In Belgium, a virtually balanced budget and greater growth than in Italy by some 6 percentage points over the period allowed the debt ratio to be reduced to less than 90 per cent in 2006.