The flexibility that they have to determine the timing and size of these steps is limited by the fact that they went into the current downturn with already high levels of debt. As a result of the poor starting points, many are now treading a fairly narrow path.
On the one hand, tightening fiscal policy in the very near term risks derailing the recovery, while not doing so risks a damaging loss of confidence. How these risks are managed is likely to have a major effect on how the world economy evolves over the next few years.