Europe: No Happy Anniversary

Considerable headwinds are hampering efforts to bring debt under control. Firstly, annual interest costs alone will be as much as seven to eight percent of GDP and rising as debt is now estimated to reach around 150 percent of GDP in 2011. Thus the government will not be able to reduce the budget deficit unless it achieves a substantial surplus on the primary budget - the balance between revenues and noninterest expenditure.

The World Today
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