Almost half the 38.6m hectares devoted to ranching could be used for intensive farming, the ministry reckons.
Germany's environment ministry reckons that incinerators have actually helped to improve air quality by reducing the need for dirtier coal-fired power plants.
The agriculture ministry reckons that the minimum herd for making a decent living is 60 cows, but the average Swiss farmer keeps only half that number.
Clemens Fuest, an Oxford don who advises the finance ministry, reckons the government will find some money for income-tax relief before the next federal election in 2013, although less than it promised at the outset.
His ministry reckons that in the long term Sweden's reforms will raise the country's employment rate by 5%.Critics on the left fear that inequality will surge, for at least two reasons.
These are often contacted by worried parents, who can also call an official telephone hotline if they are concerned about their children.The effort is time-consuming and labour-intensive, but the interior ministry reckons that such schemes have so far prevented about 70-80 departures for Syria.
Last, and perhaps best, unemployment is dropping, from 12.6% last June to 12.1%.Despite East Asia's turbulence, which the finance ministry reckons may knock 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points off French growth, Mr Strauss-Kahn is confident that the economy this year will expand by 3% "or even a little more"—the fastest rate since the early 1990s.
He also notes that because the peso has tracked the dollar, Mexican exporters may gain market share across the border at the expense of rivals battling with stronger currencies.The finance ministry still reckons that Mexico's economy will grow by 3.7% in 2008.
On its side, the PRD no longer insists on a blanket cut of VAT from 15% to 10%, which finance-ministry officials reckon would cost them about 0.8% of GDP.
As a result, finance-ministry officials reckon economic growth this year may be only 2.6%—down by 0.2% on the forecast a month or two ago.
