Obviously all is not well in the state of Belgium. The Belgian central bank has;

  • cut the GDP growth forecast for 2009 to -3.5% from -1.9%, which would be the worst on record
  • sees a 2009 budget deficit of 5.5% of GDP
  • sees a short period of negative inflation this year and has lowered the annual inflation forecast to 0.1% from 0.5%.