To judge China s economic dynamism, the key indicator is its fiscal position. When, and only when, China s fiscal position is worsening rapidly will its economy suffer a hard landing.

China s strong fiscal position today gives it a window of opportunity.

France and Germany, by contrast, have an inherently strong fiscal position.

The current election campaign is accordingly centered on France s fiscal position.

Moreover, China s fiscal position is one of the best in the world.

As its economy slows, the improvement in its fiscal position may be minimal.

Third, China s financial stability and fiscal position may deteriorate in the medium term.

As the government s fiscal position has steadily weakened, the jobs have become far scarcer.

It was hard work engineering a five trillion dollar deterioration in America s fiscal position.

In turn, this risks weakening both the government s fiscal position and the economy s external account.

Despite the parlous fiscal position, for now the market for Japanese government bonds (JGBs) remains stable.

So grim has Japan s fiscal position become that bond issuance has exceeded tax revenue since 2009.

Thus, Latvia today enjoys a sustainable fiscal position, with output close to its potential and growing.

In some countries, lower military expenditures and interest rates has helped to improve a weak fiscal position.

Putin might also argue that Russia s fiscal position is far stronger that of the other G8 members.

But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government s fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity s advocates promise.

Spain was not in an enviable position. The rapid deterioration of fiscal position after the crisis made any substantial countercyclical response impossible, while regulatory constraints limited the economy s structural flexibility.

Despite the weakness of Japan s fiscal position, the market for Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) remains stable, at least for now.

It ardently championed global fiscal stimulus on the order of 2 of world GNP a position that is all the more remarkable in view of its traditional conservatism on all fiscal matters.

China s government is now attempting fiscal decentralization to revitalize the public finance position, while adopting financial decentralization to maintain currency stability.

With a smaller debt burden and interest payments, Egypt s fiscal position would improve significantly, and threats to economic growth would recede.

In many countries, their fiscal position has collapsed under the combined weight of mismanagement and the global economic and financial crisis.

It is thanks to the spike in the CDS market that the Greek government tightened its budget and improved its fiscal position.

When a fiscal crisis hit Greece, the financial world suddenly discovered that eurozone members had put themselves in the position of developing countries.

With the fiscal position still strong, the government should be able to help enterprises and workers that suffer undue pain from the renminbi s appreciation.

Now, with the US military at its limit in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US fiscal position weakening, America is confronted with stark choices.

The US fiscal position is no better than that of major European countries like Germany, France, or the United Kingdom in fact, it is worse.

Huge tax cuts and rising military spending have fueled an enormous rise in imports, and therefore a yawning trade deficit now accompanies America s weak fiscal position.

British government bonds now offer significantly lower interest rates than those of France, Italy, or Spain, even though the United Kingdom s fiscal position is considerably worse.

Now, with household debt sustained on a knife edge after feverish government intervention, the fiscal position has deteriorated dramatically and the current account balance has worsened again.

Countries with a stronger fiscal position (that is, smaller structural deficits) should be encouraged to adopt more expansionary policies in order to contribute to lifting overall demand.

Indeed, the president is no longer required to provide the usual five year forecast of the country s fiscal position. A one year perspective is now deemed sufficient.

Third, though China s public debt GDP ratio is officially still under 20 , since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, its fiscal position has deteriorated.

The impact of slowing global trade is most apparent for Germany, which was not burdened with excessive household or corporate debt, and enjoyed a favorable fiscal position.

But if a new stimulus is well designed, with much of the money spent on assets, the fiscal position and future growth can actually be made stronger.

A more fundamental question is causality the state of the economy certainly affects the fiscal position, just as taxation, spending, deficits, and debts may affect economic growth.

Other countries, such as Ireland, Britain, and the US, started with a much stronger fiscal position, but may not be much better off when the smoke clears.

Given a lower growth rate, China s fiscal position will deteriorate gradually at first, and then rapidly with the public debt GDP ratio eventually rising to an unsustainable level.

Heavy reliance on what turns out to be disputed evidence now leaves the fiscal hawks in a weak position, to say the least, vis à vis their opponents.

The most significant medium and long term threat to China s fiscal position lies in the system of implicit guarantees that the central government has established for local government debt.

The fiscal position is, by German standards, unacceptable, and public debt at current levels is contrary to the European Union s Stability and Growth Pact and a burden on future generations.

The Greek government s misstatement of its fiscal position, coupled with the realization that the European Commission had overlooked or tolerated the Greeks accounting legerdemain, triggered the euro crisis in 2010.

According to the CDB, in the public sector, containment of expenditures, particularly on capital items, offset revenue shortfalls and led to an improvement in the Government's overall fiscal position.7

Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, both serving eight years in office, managed to ensure rapid economic growth while maintaining price stability and a sound fiscal position.

The PBC knows that rapid deterioration in America s fiscal position and continual worsening in its external balance may create an irresistible temptation for the US to inflate away its debt burden.