The budget deficit will shrink as a percentage of GDP in 2011-15, but there will be not be a return to a balanced budget, as this would require larger improvements in the tax take than seem feasible. Although the budget deficit narrowed from the equivalent of 3.9% of GDP in 2009 to 3.7% of GDP in 2010, revenue fell to its lowest level in relation to GDP since the late 1980s. The 2011 budget, approved by Congress in December, has set a deficit target of 3.2% of GDP, based on the official growth assumption. The budget increased expenditure, notably on welfare, but it contained few measures to boost revenue. In 2011-15 the Economist Intelligence Unit expects the revenue to GDP ratio to stay below the level at which it stood before the 2008-09 global recession, while the fiscal deficit will remain relatively large, at an average 2.5% of GDP a year. Even though it is not targeting a balanced budget in the medium term, the administration will want to establish a reputation for economic competence among its foreign creditors, given that it depends on the global bond market to finance its deficits.