What does the chart show? The chart shows the annual general government deficit (or surplus, in a few rare cases) for a selection of European countries as a percentage of their GDP since 2000. The countries included are the UK (in dark blue), the 18 countries of the Euro Area (in red), France (in green), Germany (in purple), Greece (in orange), and Italy (in light blue). Negative numbers represent a budget deficit, while positive numbers are a surplus.
Why is the chart interesting? At the beginning of the 21st century, the UK had one of the largest government budget surpluses in Europe. It was certainly much higher than many of our direct competitors. However, the financial crisis in 2008 hit the UK particularly hard, and by 2009 we had one of the largest deficits. Although the UK government has been reducing the deficit slowly since that trough in 2009, we are still in the unenviable position of being behind Italy, France, and even the euro area average - and a long way behind Germany, who have managed to roughly balance their budget for the past couple of years. So far this year all the data we have suggests that in 2014 our deficit might increase for the first time in five years, which is likely to put us even further behind.
The ERC Chart of the Week is updated every Wednesday.
THE ERC'S TOP THREE FROM TWITTER
Here are this week's top three articles or blog posts we've seen on twitter:
Jules Birch's article in Inside Housing looks at how the four home nations compare when it comes to building houses.
Past ERC speaker, John Kay, outlines in the FT why last week's Scottish referendum is unlikely to have a tidy resolution any time soon.
Tim Harford explains some of the key issues in game theory, and why they might be relevant to the current global situation.
