Inflation-Adjusting the Public Sector Financial Deficit : Measurement and Implications for Policy.

Current macroeconomic policy differs from conventional Keynesian demand management in two major respects, namely in the announced objectives of policy and in the means chosen to pursue them. Early in its period of office the present Government indicated that it did not endorse the conventional list of objectives (namely low employment, low inflation, positive growth and "external balance") : in committing itself only "to reduce inflation and to create conditions in which sustainable economic growth can be achieved", it implicitly abandoned the level of unemployment and external balance as objectives. In addition, however, the Chancellor announced that "Government intend to restore a broad balance of power in the framework for collective bargaining".