At the Toronto summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in June 2010, high-income countries turned to fiscal austerity. The emerging sovereign debt crises in Greece, Ireland and Portugal were one of the reasons for this. Policy makers were terrified by the risk that their countries would turn into Greece. The G20 communiqué was specific: “Advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilise or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016.” Was this both necessary and wise? No.
在2010年6月舉行的20國集團(G20)多倫多峯會上,高收入國家紛紛轉向財政緊縮。希臘、愛爾蘭和葡萄牙正在爆發的主權債務危機是促使這些國家調整政策的原因之一。各國的政策制定者們害怕本國可能會淪爲另一個希臘。G20會議公報明確指出:「發達經濟體已承諾出臺相關財政計劃,到2013年時將財政赤字削減至少一半,到2016年時穩定住或降低政府債務相對國內生產毛額(GDP)的比率。」這種做法是否既必要又明智?答案是否定的。