In the context of the OECD's Economic Outlook, medium-term projections or scenarios look out five to six years, and are published as part of the OECD's projection exercise. These scenarios basically indicate the requirements necessary to bring economies back to overall balance over the medium term - in terms of closing the output and employment gaps. Moreover, they typically act as baseline scenarios for macro-economic simulations of the effects of various alternative assumptions on economic policy or other forces affecting the projections.