The evolution of the level of the tax burden since the early 1970s can be divided into three distinct phases. First, during the 70s and in the first half of the 1980s, the tax rate increased from 34% to 42%. Then it stabilized at a rate close to 42% until the early 1990s, when it resumed its growth rate to the historical height of 44.9% in 1999. Since then, the rate of PO government has declined slightly to between 43% and 44% of the GDP.