Central banks seek to stabilize financial markets as share values around the world fall sharply and display considerable volatility because of concerns about government finances — unlike in 2008 when the worries were about the health of private financial institutions.
The deterioration in public finances has resulted from governments' lending to financial institutions to prevent their collapse and expenditures to bolster aggregate demand to prevent economies from slipping into depression.
The policy measures shored up the financial institutions and stemmed the collapse in confidence and economic activity. An economic recovery, albeit weak, began. A weak economy implies low revenues and high expenditures on social safety nets, which further raised the deficit. Raising taxes or cutting expenditures will lower GDP and so is unlikely to lower the deficit and the debt/GDP ratio.