Following the approval of the budgetary stability law by Parliament, it is crucial that all the instruments envisaged in it, particularly the monitoring and control mechanisms and those aimed at ensuring that the targets set are met by all levels of government, be set in train immediately. I think it is worth looking more closely at this law because the success of the fiscal consolidation process depends largely on whether it is applied properly. The 2011 budget outturn highlighted the consequences of the unavailability of information, which prevented budget deviations from being detected in time and delayed the activation of mechanisms to ensure the consolidation targets were met. The new stability law should significantly improve the transparency of government action in at least three respects. First, it is essential for the budget outturn of local and regional governments to be published regularly, with the same periodicity, level of detail, lag and ease of access as that of the State. Second, the information contained in the State and regional government budgets must be improved, so that the assumptions underlying revenue and expenditure projections are known and the information is made available on these items in national accounts terms, which is the relevant definition for the existing fiscal rules. Finally, the information in the adjustment plans at the various levels of government should be made public and presented in a format allowing it to be analysed and compared with the initial budgets. In addition, the mechanisms obliging government deficits to be corrected have clearly proved to be insufficient.
The credibility of this strategy, which calls for absolute rigorous compliance with the short-term objectives set in the 2012 draft Budget law, will determine whether economic agents regain their confidence in our economy, which is the key to a sustained recovery of activity. Thank you. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7