Key numbers


IREF - Dec 01, 2011

$ 1.543 billion

$ 1.543 billion
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is the amount of exposition of French banks to European countries' private and public debt. They own for instance $106 billion of Italian public debt (which is six times higher than the amount held in Greek bonds), while $230 billion are held in Belgian government bonds. France is therefore almost as vulnerable to its neighbor debt crisis than to its own.







  	

        IREF - Nov 21, 2011
      

    

      
€ 3 billion

      

  
  

  

	    
This is the annual cost of one percentage point increase of the interest rates on French government bonds, according to the credit rating agency Moody's. France is currently facing 2% higher rate for 10 years bonds than Germany, which is the unprecedented gap between the two countries’ interest rates since the creation of the Eurozone.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Oct 29, 2011
      

    

      
€55 bn

      

  
  

  

	
€55 bn
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Germany has raised over a quarter of its total EFSF obligation of €211 billion by way of what is essentially magic. The Telegraph reports that "Germany is €55bn richer than it previously thought because of an accounting error at state-owned bank Hypo Real Estate Holding. Germany's 2010 debt-to-GDP ratio also drops, to 83.2% from the previous 84.2%, a finance ministry spokesman said.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Aug 29, 2011
      

    

      
4 257

      

  
  

  

	
4 257
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is the number of new regulatory actions in the works in the United States. Even before those 4,257 new regulations go into effect, the Federal Register shows more than 81,000 pages of regulations, which result in compliance costs in excess of $1.7 trillion, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's "Ten Thousand Commandments: How much regulation is enough" report for 2010.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Jul 07, 2011
      

    

      
10

      

  
  

  

	    
This is the number of times the American Congress raised the debt ceiling in the last ten years. This is revealing systemic problems and, at some point, the incapacity of the current political and legal arrangement to solve the debt problem.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Jun 30, 2011
      

    

      
€ 43 billion

      

  
  

  

	    
is the amount that a new austerity plan is supposed to save to Italian public finances. The plan aims to bring Italy's public deficit down to 0.2% of GDP by 2014 from 4.6 per cent in 2010 and to calm investors worried about Italian public debt.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Jun 21, 2011
      

    

      
€ 330 billion

      

  
  

  

	    
This is the amount of the public debt of Greece. Officials from the Eurozone are debating right now the possibility to accord additional money to the Greek government in a desperate try to avoid a debt default.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - May 28, 2011
      

    

      
$20 billion

      

  
  

  

	    
This is the amount of money promissed  to  Egypt and Tunisia by the multilateral development banks at the G8 meeting. This will include grants under the EUs budget for its neighbourhood (7 Billion Euro, of which 1,24 Billion Euro is fresh money, proposed by the Commission this week).

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Apr 25, 2011
      

    

      
17

      

  
  

  

	
17
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Confirming the analysis found in IREF's 2011 yearbook, the 2011 Paying Taxes report of the Price Waterhouse Coopers says that reducing rates of profit tax is the most popular tax reform in the world. Not less than 17 economies did this in 2009/10.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  







  	

        IREF - Mar 21, 2011
      

    

      
$ 2 trillion

      

  
  

  

	
$ 2 trillion
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This would be the annual interest on the USA public debt in 2021, according to the estimations made by the economist Veronique de Rugy. This number is nearly triple from the official projections, but much more realistic, since it takes into account the historical evolution of interest rates and private sector forecasts.

	    

      

    		

	

	  


    


  



                

              

            


                      

          
          
                    
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