[dangerlibrary]

The -0.1% mean growth rate was the silver bullet. It was everything - the only number anyone remembered or cared about after reading the paper.

Without that, it's another data point correlating economic growth and sovereign debt - and not a very interesting one, either.

[tejaswiy]

Related question: From what I understand, all the study is doing is that it's saying on an average countries with high debt / GDP have a slightly negative growth rate. But isn't that just one data point and not a justification for austerity itself?

[carbocation]

The original study said that. The new study said that their growth, while positive, is a bit less than those with less debt.

It's an association. It does not prove that there is causation, nor the direction of the causal arrow.