Professor John McHale:

Under the rules, the plan is to get close to a balanced budget with a small deficit. That means the heavy lifting in terms of reducing the debt ratio would be done through growth. If there are any signs that the economy is overheating, there might be a case to go a bit beyond that deficit target and run small surpluses. It is only when one runs surpluses that one brings down nominal debt. That may be appropriate in the years ahead. If we follow the fiscal rules, growth will do the heavy lifting in bringing down the debt to GDP ratio.