The heavier burden of debt-servicing costs will constrain consumer budgets over the next year or so.

ECONOMIST: Economic prospects

But debt-servicing costs would still leave an overall deficit of 6.8% of GDP.

ECONOMIST: How much more can Greeks take?

That would sharply raise debt-servicing costs, pitching the government into a downward spiral of surging interest rates and rising deficits.

ECONOMIST: Italy: Stormier weather ahead | The

According to Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, debt-servicing costs are at their highest as a share of disposable income since the recession of the early 1990s (see chart).

ECONOMIST: Economic prospects

This home bias also helps explain why, though the stock of debt is huge, debt-servicing costs as a percentage of GDP have been relatively low compared with Japan's OECD peers (see chart).

ECONOMIST: Japan is not yet doomed to debt-induced penury

When the debt on which interest is paid equals the GDP level of a nation, the economy must grow faster than the interest rate to avoid debt-servicing costs consuming all the benefit of economic growth.

WSJ: Phil Gramm and Steve McMillin: The Debt Problem Hasn't Vanished

But since interest rates cannot be sustained at current levels without adding unbearably to the budget through extra debt-servicing costs, the only hope of restoring market confidence after the election will be a far more drastic fiscal squeeze.

ECONOMIST: Brazil

Indeed, it is membership of the euro that has made Italy's public-debt burden bearable by cutting its servicing costs sharply.

ECONOMIST: The search for scapegoats | The

Servicing this debt already requires the government to run a primary fiscal surplus (that is, before debt-service costs) of around 4% of GDP, and some economists think it will need to be even more.

ECONOMIST: Let the people decide | The