concentrated in health and welfare services.24 Some policy-makers in countries with extensive automatic fiscal stabilizers (e.g. social benefits and unemployment benefits) have argued that these inherent built-in stimulus measures can help stabilize their economies during an economic downturn, so these countries may not need explicit additional legislation25 or stimulus plans26 in response to the recession. Implementation of the announced stimulus measures has so far proved slow, however, and has yet to be carried out in many countries, with actual spending of announced stimulus measures relatively low in many cases. In the US, for example, the IMF notes that payroll tax cuts were implemented relatively quickly, but only US$ 46 billion or 11% of authorized spending measures had taken place by mid-May 2009, Impact of fi scal packages over 2008-2010 on fi scal balances Figure 2 -6 Supportive fiscal packages i) ii) Decrease in tax revenues -4 Increase in government spending -2 % 2008 GDP 0 2 Fiscal balance Revenues Spending Tightening fiscal packages i) ii) Increase in tax revenues 4 Decrease in government spending 6 UK Austria Slovak Rep. Czech Rep. Average Belgium Japan Luxembourg US Korea Australia Sweden Canada Mexico Spain France Switzerland Italy Iceland Germany Denmark Poland Norway Finland New Zealand Ireland Source: OECD 2009, First Interim Report on the OECD’s Strategic Response to the Financial & Economic Crisis, C (2009)26. 22