The Belgian debt is swelling and is not expected to stop anytime soon. To discuss the situation and possible solutions, the commissioner of the Federal Planning Bureau, Baudouin Regout answered Martin Buxant’s questions.
At the European level, Belgium is in the top three… of bad students. This is what Baudouin Regout, commissioner of the Federal Planning Bureau, explains in Bel RTL’s 7h50. As an example to follow, Belgium could take inspiration from its northern neighbors, the Netherlands.
“The Netherlands have historically implemented a whole series of reforms, a bit like Belgium in the 60s and 80s, which works well“, reports the expert.”There are many similarities, but one difference, indeed: it is at the budgetary level where the Netherlands has managed to significantly reduce debt, including since the famous financial crisis and now finds itself effectively with deficits and significantly lower debts.”
In concrete terms, the Dutch have implemented “lots of little things, but done over time” explains Baudouin Regout. He adds, as a reminder, that our country has already implemented similar policies in the past which have borne fruit. “There were a whole series of periods where Belgium had, for example, debt rates which rose to 120%, or even beyond. They managed to decrease below 100%, even down to 80% at one point. But it’s done over time.“
The last period of economic actions of this kind dates back to when Jean-Luc Dehaene was Prime Minister. “Mbut there have been several periods of improvement. But that was the most recent. We have already made efforts in the past and we should reproduce the same type of efforts.“
“The trick is to go the long way, not to make an effort too brutal, too short, but to give yourself time and maintain these policies in the long term.“, concludes the expert.
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