Can public spending be reduced once it has been increased?

The situation is dangerous if in some OECD countries public spending, once increased, can no longer be reduced: such increases, even linked to a temporary need (a decline in activity), become permanent, and this transforms part of cyclical fiscal deficits into structural fiscal deficits. In the major OECD countries, we look at the degree of inertia in public spending (by explaining the level of public spending, in real terms, by that of the previous year, by the output gap and by the degree of population ageing). Among the seven largest OECD countries, we see a high degree of public spending inertia in the United Kingdom, France and Spain, with complete public spending inertia in all three cases .