The European Union has an additional problem: in response to the sovereign crisis, most of its members agreed in 2011 to a “fiscal compact” requiring them to keep their structural budget deficit – the one they would record were output equal to potential – below 0.5% of GDP. Failure to converge on this target may open the door to financial penalties.
欧盟还有另一个问题：在应对主权危机时，大部分成员国在2011年同意了一份“财政契约”，该契约要求它们把结构性预算赤字——让产出等于潜在水平所需要的赤字——限制在GDP的0.5%以下。无法达到这一要求可能导致金融惩罚。