Owing to falling or insufficiently growing government revenues - in particular in a period of growing debt service - the level of social transfers and provision of public goods necessary to tackle growing inequality were inadequate. In addition to an increase in government revenues as a share of GDP, a reduction of the interest burden on the public debt since the late 1990s has also contributed to the enlargement of fiscal space in many countries. The lower interest burden was partly the result of lower international interest rates in countries that are primarily indebted to private creditors, and partly due to debt relief in countries primarily indebted to official creditors. Indeed, the unprecedented amount of official debt relief that has been granted to developing countries since the mid-1990s reduced the share of public finances that had to be allocated to debt repayment in a number of low- and middle-income countries.