ABSTRACT
Almost ten years ago, the North American and European countries were considered to have made only limited progress in getting their ratios of public debt-toGDP right (IMF 1996). Also then, the Latin American countries had to contain their fiscal imbalances, as well as scale down the level of state intervention in the economy. In contrast, the East Asian economies were considered rather prudent in government housekeeping with minimal fiscal imbalances and debt.
