Ageing is going to translate into significant additional budget costs, generally estimated for the next few decades (and only for pensions) at between 3 and 5% of GDP in the majority of European countries. These forecasts show quite clearly that demographic change without appropriate reform is likely to weigh down very heavily on public finance.
That being said, there are numerous aspects of economic policies which are under the responsibility of the countries themselves: in particular the fiscal polices, the structural policies and the surveillance of the evolution of unit labour costs. 4  BIS Review 92/2008  22. Portugal, for instance, has quite a low level of inflation.