It is not surprising that Britain's largest economic downturn since the war should have seen the largest ever peacetime government budget deficit. By the end of this year Britain's output will have fallen by about 5 per cent since the crisis started; in the same period the budget deficit will have risen by between 5 per cent and 8 per cent of output. Arithmetic so simple that even a child can understand it: smaller output, smaller revenues, larger deficit. And the corollary: larger output, larger revenues, smaller deficit.
在英國(guó)陷入戰(zhàn)后最嚴(yán)重經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退之際，政府的預(yù)算赤字也應(yīng)達(dá)到和平時(shí)期的最高水平，這并不讓人感到意外。到今年年底，英國(guó)的產(chǎn)出將比危機(jī)開(kāi)始時(shí)下降約5%，與此同時(shí)，預(yù)算赤字占產(chǎn)出的比重將上升5%到8%。連小孩子都能理解其中簡(jiǎn)單的算術(shù)關(guān)系：產(chǎn)出減少，收入減少，赤字增加。以此類(lèi)推：產(chǎn)出增加，收入增加，赤字減少。