Euro-zone Fiscal Monitor (Jul.)

The euro-zone’s efforts to put its public finances in order continued in Q1, with the region’s budget deficit shrinking to its lowest level since mid-2007. And timelier central government fiscal data suggest that most of the peripheral countries continued to improve in Q2. General government public finances data for Q1 showed that the region’s seasonally-adjusted budget deficit fell from Q4’s 1.1% of GDP to 0.9%, the smallest deficit since Q3 2007.