Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

Regarding the public finances, and from the narrow sustainable economic management point of view, these are the major choices the political system has to make. They have to be economically and fiscally sustainable. They are not choices about which the council can advise the political system. We can just lay out what we believe they are. The system can choose to go about this in different ways, but it is for the democratic system to decide how the balances are struck. They are difficult balances to achieve, especially given higher import prices mean there is a loss to the country as a whole. We have to decide who is going to bear that loss. It is a difficult choice.