a fiscal adjustment of some 7% of GDP in Japan, 2½ to 3% of GDP in the United States, 1½% of GDP in the United Kingdom …

Japan's government debt is extremely high, especially considering the fact that the data exclude likely future … factor is the degree to which the Bank of Japan has already monetised the debt. The monetary expansion up to the end of 2003 … has increased the net worth of the Bank of Japan, properly measured, to more than 17% of GDP, directly reducing the debt …