The ratings are primarily based on the Canton of Solothurn's very strong budgetary performance, which we expect to continue through 2010 with an operating performance of 8.3% of operating revenues and a small surplus after capital accounts of 0.9% of adjusted total revenues. Should the canton achieve these levels, it will have outperformed its budgeted figures again. This track record of excellent performance, despite the economic crisis in 2009, forms a solid platform for facing lower tax revenues and potentially higher expenditure needs over the next few years, in our opinion. Under our base-case scenario, we expect the canton to achieve a slightly weaker budgetary performance until 2014, compared with the excellent performance achieved so far. In our base-case, we
