good balance in our government finances, and compared with the other european countries in general, our public debt has been kept at a fairly low level. however, due to the economic recession we saw somewhat concerning development starting. looking into the coming years we have to curb the current pace of incurring of the public debt. in the absence of new fiscal policy measures during the forecast period, the general government deficit will contract only slightly and the general government debt will continue to grow during the forecast period ( figure 26 ). let me conclude by saying that, in general, the recent developments in the finnish economy have been mixed. on one hand, economic growth has strengthened and surveys indicate strongly improved confidence in the future. on the other hand, the rapid growth has touched only some sectors of the economy, and new areas of concern have emerged both internationally and domestically. the key challenge for economic policy is to restore the sustainability of the public finances in finland. thank you very much for your attention and successful meetings in helsinki during the following days. bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches bis central bankers ’ speeches

related to fiscal sustainability. in the european union, our common fiscal rules play an important role in safeguarding fiscal sustainability. in a moment, i will address some issues related to eu fiscal rules. however, before that, let me go back in time a few years to a situation where issues related to fiscal sustainability and the reliability of fiscal data suddenly became headline news in europe. i am referring to greece and my years as the eu commissioner for economic and financial affairs. slide 2 – summary the global financial crisis rocked the financial system and the world economy starting in 2008. the first signs of the crisis emerged in the united states, but it soon became clear that the crisis will not remain outside the borders of europe. 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches certain european countries came to suffer more from the crisis than others. in many countries, household borrowing and house price increases were unsustainable, risks had accumulated in the banking system, and large current account deficits marked wide imbalances in the economy. however, fiscal policies also played a role. almost exactly 10 years ago, in october 2009, the financial crisis took a new turn in europe. it morphed into a sovereign debt crisis. upon taking office, the prime minister of greece, george papandreou, revealed that the fiscal deficit in greece was significantly larger than previously reported. as it later turned out, the deficit was above 10 % of gdp in 2008 and above 15 % of gdp in 2009, which triggered and caused the greek crisis. as investors became aware of the real state of greek public finances and of the systematic falsification of statistics, investors woke up to the risk attached to the sovereign bonds of not just greece but also other vulnerable euro area countries. papandreou ’ s announcement caused a shock in the financial markets and stupefied political decision makers. the yields on greek sovereign bonds began to rise to unsustainable levels. by may 2010, the yield on 10 - year greek sovereign bonds had risen to over 10 percentage points above those of germany. greece would no longer have been able to finance its public expenditures. the government did not have many options : greece had its back against the wall. it had to choose between a default and a request for international support. a contagion effect was soon felt in other vulnerable countries : portugal and spain also saw their credit ratings downgraded in march - april 2010. the crisis was widening and deepening with accelerating speed. one critical lesson is