“Three months ago, the debate was whether the economy was still declining or going sideways. Now the debate is whether the economy is going sideways or whether it is improving.”
“The ministry of finance is clearly prepared to sacrifice one year's growth in order to be able to begin to reconstruct the budget -- and cut the budget deficit..”
“The government still is claiming that the economy is okay. And if the economy's okay, then there's no reason to change it's fiscal stance. The mere fact that the market has gone down 10 percent doesn't really matter in economic terms.”
“I think the real question is whether growth in 2001 is positive or negative. And the way things are going, it's looking increasingly likely there's going to be a negative number.”
“It's really rather worrying that six weeks into the job, he still hasn't figured out the difference. It does suggest there's quite a nasty policy mistake coming our way and quite a nasty recession.”
