Mindful of its large public debt, Italy refrained from using fiscalpolicy as an active tool to stimulate the economy, and has managed to keep its budget deficit below the euro-area average (see left-hand chart).
The chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, hitherto a seriously hyper-active type, needed a break from using fiscalpolicy to mend every last thing in the economy that does not work exactly as he thinks it should, and so did the country.