Despite a stringent fiscal retrenchment in 2010, the deficit is thought to have been a still-huge 10.6% of GDP last year.After 12 months of official denials, restructuring is no longer taboo.
But without a stringent fiscal policy, the United States would not today be trying to decide what to do with surpluses instead of deficits.
There are periods – the late 1970s and the mid-1990s – when in the aftermath of a crash, stringent fiscal policy is used to rebalance the economy towards exports and manufacturing, but history suggests that they don't last for long.
Whatever it does, America is currently on course for the most stringent fiscal tightening of any big economy in 2012, as temporary tax cuts and unemployment insurance expire at the end of this year.
He concluded that the county will need at least four years of stringent fiscal policies to reduce its budget deficit.
Labour's problem is less acute, because it has set itself less stringent fiscal targets for the next parliament.
There will be more stringent fiscal rules, with tougher and earlier punishments for those who flout them.
But creditors are also demanding a new set of contingency measures to ensure the country achieves agreed stringent fiscal targets by 2018.
The report also said Greece might have benefited from less stringent fiscal targets, or targets spread out over a longer time frame.
And with economic growth set to be subdued, unemployment likely to rise further, continued weakness in credit growth, and stringent fiscal consolidation yet to bite, the majority on the MPC will be in no hurry to tighten monetary policy.
Now, whether it wants to or not, Turkey is faced with the awkward prospect of being forced to accept stringent fiscal conditions to obtain I.M.F. money to replace the disappearing private capital just as its economy is caught in the global slowdown.
