BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  13% of GDP.2 Therefore, unfortunately, in spite of nearly 16% of GDP in budgetary adjustment measures undertaken since 2008, a deficit of 8.3% is projected for this year, falling slightly to 7.5% for 2013. Three factors have led to the rapid increase in public debt in the wider European context.
First, the large recession triggered by the financial crisis has led tax revenues to be much weaker than projected. To mitigate this effect, governments have raised tax rates and relied on one-off revenues. In spite of these efforts total revenues as a share of GDP have remained relatively flat (Figure 3).