The link between growth and debt has been fundamentally misunderstood, Roger Nightingale, an economist, said on Friday at the National Asset Liability Management conference.

In an energetic speech, Nightingale said: "The causality goes from growth to debt," which was why economies that grew at great speed did not have staggering deficits. "There is a belief in Europe that it goes the other way around," he said. Greece was not in its current position because of its high deficit- a claim which