The severity of the crisis has created a vast international consensus on the need to accompany monetary action with fiscal expansion. For the G-20 economies, crisis-related discretionary  2  2  IMF (2009). BIS Review 128/2009  fiscal measures are estimated at about 2 per cent of GDP in 2009 and 1.5 per cent in 2010, over the 2007 baseline.
To this, we should add the substantial cost of various measures – capital injections, guarantees on bank liabilities, relief of impaired assets, liquidity and bank funding support – enacted in most countries to sustain the banking systems. This powerful response averted the danger of a systemic collapse and helped to restore market confidence and bring back a more “normal” risk appetite.