Requirement of a close to balance or in surplus position || Country specific MTO in structural terms: - Provide a safety margin with respect to the 3% deficit limit - Ensure rapid progress towards sustainability - Allow room for budgetary manoeuvre For euro area and ERMII MS: limits of -1% of GDP Expenditure benchmark: expenditure net of discretionary measures should grow ≤ medium-term potential GDP || 0.5% GDP as a benchmark: - More in good times - Less in bad times >0.5% if debt above 60% or if pronounced sustainability risks Temporary deviation from the adjustment path allowed if: - Implementation of major structural reforms with a ve ...[+++]rifiable impact on the long-term sustainability of public finances – emphasis on pension reform - Unusual event outside the control of the MS concerned with a major impact on its financial position - Severe economic downturn for the euro area or the EU as a whole provided this does not endanger medium term fiscal sustainability || Procedure for correcting significant deviation (0.5% in one year or cumulatively over 2 years from the MTO or the adjustment path it) For euro area: financial sanctions in case of repeated non-compliance (interest-bearing deposit of 0.2% of GDP)

Member States shall determine the discount rate to be used in the macroeconomic calculation after having performed a sensitivity analysis on at least two different rates, one of which shall be 3 % expressed in real terms.

2. Positions held with trading intent are those held intentionally for short-term resale and/or with the intention of benefiting from actual or expected short-term price differences between buying and selling prices or from other price or interest rate variations.

2. Positions held with trading intent are those held intentionally for short-term resale and/or with the intention of benefiting from actual or expected short-term price differences between buying and selling prices or from other price or interest rate variations.

Since the calculations shall be made in real terms, net of inflation, the rate of annual change in the salary scales and the annual rate of increase due to seniority and promotions shall be rates of increases net of inflation.

The assessment will focus on economic indicators such as inflation, interest rates, the output gap and the real effective exchange rate with a view to long-term convergence.