How strong is the government right
now?
I think we are in a fairly comfortable position,
mostly by virtue of the economic track record that we've
established in the past few years. The growth rate has been
between 4% and 5% for several years in a row. We have a low
single-digit inflation rate this year, with the public debt
to GDP ratio substantially down in two years from 75% to 50%.
We've had a stream of credit rating upgrades - eight of them
in two years. This goes hand in hand with lower unemployment,
which has gone from 19% to 14% in two years. And we've also
put the current account deficit in control.
The budget deficit is one of the lowest in Europe and the IMF
programme is performing very well. The expectation that has yet to
materialize is a pick-up in foreign direct investment. That is
down, but we believe there...
