Balance Sheets | IMF Blog

What Advanced Economies Can Do to Rise Above the “New Mediocre”

By Era Dabla-Norris, Vikram Haksar, and Kalpana Kochhar

Global growth remains anemic more than five years after the global financial crisis. If nothing is done, the prospect of settling into a “new mediocre” will become reality, especially in advanced economies.

In many advanced economies, accommodative monetary policies, growth-friendly fiscal frameworks, and efforts to tackle private debt overhang and improve tax revenues and compliance are essential to lift economic growth in the short term.

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By IMFBlog| March 30th, 2015|Advanced Economies, Employment, Europe, Financial Crisis, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Investment, Reform, Uncategorized|

Legacies, Clouds and Uncertainties

By Olivier Blanchard

(Versions in Français, español, 中文, Русский, 日本語)

The recovery continues, but it is weak and uneven.

You have now seen the basic numbers from our latest projections in the October 2014 World Economic Outlook released today. We forecast world growth to be 3.3% in 2014, down 0.1% from our July forecast, and 3.8% in 2015, down 0.2% from our July forecast.

This number hides however very different evolutions. Some countries have recovered or nearly recovered. But others are still struggling.

Looking around the world, economies are subject to two main forces. One from the past: Countries have to deal with the legacies of the financial crisis, ranging from debt overhangs to high unemployment. One from the future, or more accurately, the anticipated future: Potential growth rates are being revised down, and these worse prospects are in turn affecting confidence, demand, and growth today.

Because these two forces play in different countries to different degrees, economic evolutions are becoming more differentiated. With this in mind, let me take you on the usual quick tour of the world:

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By IMFBlog| October 7th, 2014|Advanced Economies, Annual Meetings, Asia, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Europe, Financial Crisis, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, Reform, Uncategorized|

Euro Area – Q&A on QE

By Reza Moghadam and Ranjit Teja

As inflation has sunk in the euro area, talk of quantitative easing (QE)—and misgivings about it—have soared. Some think QE is not needed; others that it would not work; and yet others that it only creates asset bubbles and may even be “illegal.” In its latest report on the euro area, the IMF assesses recent policy action positively but adds that “… if inflation remains too low, the ECB should consider a substantial balance sheet expansion, including through asset purchases.” Given all the reservations, would the juice be worth the squeeze?

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By IMFBlog| July 14th, 2014|Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Economic research, Employment, Europe, Finance, growth, International Monetary Fund, Uncategorized|

Slowdown in Emerging Markets: Not Just a Hiccup

By Evridiki Tsounta and Kalpana Kochhar

(Versions in Español)

Emerging market economies have been experiencing strong growth, with annual growth for the period 2000-12 averaging 4¾ percent per year—a full percentage point higher than in the previous two decades. In the last two to three years, however, growth in most emerging markets has been cooling off, in some cases quite rapidly.

Is the recent slowdown just a hiccup or a sign of a more chronic condition? To answer this question, we first looked at the factors behind this strong growth performance.

Our new study finds that increases in employment and the accumulation of capital, such as buildings and machinery, continue to be the main drivers of growth in emerging markets. Together they explain 3 percentage points of annual GDP growth in 2000–12, while improvements in the efficiency of the inputs of production—which economists call “total factor productivity”—explain 1 ¾ percentage points (Figure 1).

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By IMFBlog| June 26th, 2014|Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, growth, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, Middle East, Uncategorized|

The Trillion Dollar Question: Who Owns Emerging Market Government Debt

By Serkan Arslanalp and Takahiro Tsuda

(Version in Español, Français, Português, Русский, 中文 and 日本語)

There are a trillion reasons to care about who owns emerging market debt. That’s how much money global investors have poured into in these government bonds in recent years —$1 trillion. Who owns it, for how long and why it changes over time can shed light on the risks; a sudden reversal of money flowing out of a country can hurt. Shifts in the investor base also can have implications for a government’s borrowing costs.

What investors do next is a big question for emerging markets, and our new analysis takes some of the guesswork out of who owns your debt. The more you know your investors, the better you understand the potential risks and how to deal with them.

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By IMFBlog| March 5th, 2014|Advanced Economies, Debt Relief, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Financial Crisis, growth, International Monetary Fund, Investment, Public debt, Uncategorized|

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: How to Design Policies that Work

Oppers_desk_portrait By Erik Oppers

What’s up with weak credit? Five years into the economic crisis credit is still barely growing, and even declining in many advanced economies. Weak credit growth is a major factor holding back the economic recovery and governments have tried every policy they can come up with to jumpstart credit. Still, banks don’t seem to want to lend. Or is it the corporate sector and households that can’t afford to borrow? Many feel these policies are not working. What are policymakers to do?

Our analysis in the most recent Global Financial Stability Report tries to shed light on all this darkness to help countries figure out how to make these policies work. It turns out there is no cookie-cutter solution: the problem differs from country to country and changes over time. For example, in a number of euro area countries, a lackluster demand for loans limited credit growth early in the crisis, but then banks became reluctant to supply more loans as the crisis in Europe intensified in 2012.

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By IMFBlog| October 2nd, 2013|Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Finance, Fiscal policy, growth, International Monetary Fund, Politics, Uncategorized|

A Missing Piece In Europe’s Growth Puzzle

Even before the latest euro area GDP numbers and Italian elections cast a shadow over the continent, economists were struggling to reconcile the steady improvement in market sentiment with the more downbeat data on the economy, production, orders, and jobs. This video looks at this puzzle from a somewhat different perspective than the usual— we examine the role of household and corporate balance sheets in the countries under financial market stress and the implications for policy priorities.

By IMFBlog| March 5th, 2013|International Monetary Fund|

Seeing Our Way Through The Crisis: Why We Need Fiscal Transparency

Without good fiscal information, governments can’t understand the fiscal risks they face or make good budget decisions. Fiscal transparency—the public availability of timely, reliable, and relevant data on the past, present, and future state of the public finances—is thus to the foundation of effective fiscal management.

By IMFBlog| November 1st, 2012|Advanced Economies, Employment, Europe, Finance, Fiscal policy, growth, IMF, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Politics, Public debt|

Risks to Financial Stability Increase, Bold Action Needed

The latest update of the Global Financial Stability Report says financial stability risks have increased, because of escalating funding and market pressures and a weak growth outlook. Now is the moment for strong political leadership, because tough decisions will need to be made to restore confidence and ensure lasting financial stability in both advanced and emerging economies. It is time for action.

By IMFBlog| July 17th, 2012|Advanced Economies, Europe, Financial Crisis, IMF, International Monetary Fund|

Global Financial Stability: What’s Still To Be Done?

The quest for lasting financial stability is still fraught with risks. The latest Global Financial Stability Report has two key messages: policy actions have brought gains to global financial stability since our September report; but current policy efforts are not enough to achieve lasting stability, both in Europe and some other advanced economies, in particular the United States and Japan.

By IMFBlog| April 18th, 2012|Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Emerging Markets, Finance, Financial Crisis, Financial regulation, G-20, IMF, International Monetary Fund|

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