Meanwhile, although fiscal policy has become less expansionary, deficits have remained larger than 3.5% of GDP over the past three years. These deficits have been 3 In gross debt terms, as a share of GDP, government’s debt stock was 26.5% of GDP in 2008.
In  2016, it was 50.5% of GDP, and IMF forecasts indicate that it will reach 52.5% of GDP in 2017. Page 3 of 10  more than simply the unfortunate consequence of low tax revenues caused by slowing growth.