Budget

All of a sudden the starting point for the preparation of the Belgian budget has changed drastically for the worse. The deficit this year might rise to 1.4 bio and to 6.3 bio (1.7 % of GDP) in 2009 - and these are not the highest numbers floating around ... Just a reminder : the 2009 budget should show a 0.3 % surplus.

But don't panic, the minister calls these numbers premature. Not to worry ! Apparently, the bankers are not the only ones who heve been caught with their pants down.

A couple of days ago, a nephew of mine said that the introduction of the euro had been a catastrophy as prices have been rising very fast indeed. I told him there were some good points too - without the euro Belgium might have known a couple of additional devaluations. And these might have provoked even worse inflationary trends.