Rethinking Macroeconomic Policy

Posted on April 29, 2013 by iMFdirect

blanchBy Olivier Blanchard

(Versions in عربي, 中文, Français, Русский, and Español)

The IMF has just hosted a second conference devoted to rethinking macroeconomic policy in the wake of the crisis. After two days of fascinating presentations and discussions, I am certain of one thing:  this is unlikely to be our last conference on the subject.

Rethinking and reforms are both taking place.  But we still do not know the final destination, be it for the redefinition of monetary policy, or the contours of financial regulation, or the role of macroprudential tools. We have a general sense of direction, but we are largely navigating by sight.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Asia, Debt Relief, Economic research, Europe, Finance, Financial Crisis, Financial regulation, Financial sector supervision, Fiscal policy, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Politics, Public debt | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

How to Sustain Recent Financial Gains: Fix Old Risks and Meet New Challenges

Posted on April 17, 2013 by iMFdirect

GFSRBy José Viñals

(Versions in  عربي ,日本語, Español)

Policymakers’ decisive actions  since our last report in October have increased global financial stability by reducing acute risks.

  • In the euro area, policymakers averted a financial cliff.
  • In the United States, the worst fears of the fiscal cliff had been averted, while balance sheet repair and continued monetary easing have supported financial markets and the recovery.
  • In Japan, new policy initiatives have caught the imagination of global markets that Japan may finally leave its deflation valley.

But our latest Global Financial Stability Report concludes that improved financial markets and gains in financial stability will not be sustained—and new risks are likely to emerge—unless policymakers address key underlying vulnerabilities.

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Filed under: Economic Crisis, Europe, Finance, Financial Crisis, growth, International Monetary Fund | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The World’s Three-Speed Economic Recovery

Posted on April 16, 2013 by iMFdirect

WEOBy Olivier Blanchard

(Versions in عربي , 中文, 日本語, Русский, and Español)

The main theme of our latest outlook is one that you have now heard for a few days: we have moved from a two-speed recovery to a three-speed recovery.

Emerging market and developing economies are still going strong, but in advanced economies, there appears to be a growing bifurcation between the United States on the one hand, and the Euro area on the other.

This is reflected in our forecasts. Growth in emerging market and developing economies is forecast to reach 5.3% in 2013, and 5.7% in 2014. Growth in the United States is forecast to be 1.9% in 2013, and 3.0% in 2014. In contrast, growth in the Euro area is forecast to be -0.3% in 2013, and only 1.1% in 2014.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Asia, Debt Relief, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Emerging Markets, Europe, Fiscal policy, growth, Low-income countries | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Fiscal Milestone: Achievements, Fatigue, and Prospects

Posted on April 16, 2013 by iMFdirect

Fiscal Monitor

By Carlo Cottarelli

(Versions in عربي , 中文, 日本語, and Español)

The 2008–09 global economic crisis pushed public debt ratios of advanced economies to levels never seen before during peacetime. These high debt levels expose countries to a loss of market confidence and, ultimately, damage long-term growth prospects.  Since 2010 advanced economies have been on a journey: the goal is to bring their public finances back to safer territory. They are in it for the long haul, not a sprint, and, as a redress of the large fiscal imbalances created by the crisis, without derailing the still fragile economic recovery, it requires a steady and gradual pace of adjustment—at least for countries not subject to market pressures.

This year we see the process of gradual fiscal adjustment reaching two symbolic milestones. First, the average deficit of advanced economies as a share of GDP will fall to half of its 2009 level at the peak of the crisis. Second, the average debt ratio will stop rising, after increasing steadily since 2007. Indeed, it will actually decline slightly.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Europe, Financial Crisis, Fiscal policy, International Monetary Fund | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

How To Make A Graceful Exit: The Potential Perils of Ending Extraordinary Central Bank Policies

Posted on April 11, 2013 by iMFdirect

Erik Oppers MCMBy Erik Oppers

This spring monetary policy is the talk of the town.  It is everywhere you look, it’s unique, and you’ve never seen anything quite like it before: short-term interest rates at zero for several years running, and central bank balance sheets swelling with government bonds and other assets in the euro area Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

But the meteoric rise of this once dusty topic can’t last.  The end of these unconventional monetary policies will come and may pose threats to financial stability because of the length and breadth of their unprecedented reign.  Policymakers should be alert to the risks and take gradual and predictable measures to address them.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic outlook, Economic research, Fiscal policy, International Monetary Fund, Investment | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

What We Can Do To Improve Women’s Economic Opportunities

Posted on March 8, 2013 by iMFdirect

Christine LagardeBy Christine Lagarde

Versions in  عربي, 中文, Français, 日本語, Русский, and Español

Today, I invite all of you to celebrate International Women’s Day. Let’s celebrate the incredible progress women have made over the past decades in different parts of society, playing a key role in economic life that our grandmothers worked for and dreamed about. Today, although men still dominate the executive suites in most professions, women all over the world hold high positions in the private sector and in public office. Women are no longer the Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir wrote about.

But far too many women face the most fundamental challenges: the right to safety and to choose the life they want.

Across the globe, fewer women than men are in paid employment, with only about 50 percent of working-age women participating in the labor force. In many countries, laws, regulations and social norms still constrain women’s possibilities to seek paid employment. And all over the world women conduct most of the work that remains unseen and unpaid, in the fields and in households.

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Filed under: Africa, Asia, Europe, growth, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, Middle East, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Resolutions for the Fiscal New Year—Staying on Track Is No Easy Task

Posted on February 4, 2013 by iMFdirect

by Carlo Cottarelli and Philip Gerson

Version in Español and عربي

We’re one month into 2013, and if past experience is any guide, by now many people will have all but forgotten the promises they made about the things they planned to do over the coming year.

It’s a time-honored tradition in many countries for people to make resolutions at the New Year, usually involving things that are good for them, like achieving a healthier weight. Unfortunately, it’s also traditional that these commitments quickly fall by the wayside, only to be taken up again next year, usually with the same results.

But unlike many of these resolutions, the ones made by most advanced economies to reduce their 2012 fiscal deficits were by and large kept. The average headline deficit in these countries fell by about ¾ percent of GDP last year, bringing the cumulative deficit decline to 3 percent of GDP since budget shortfalls peaked in 2009. This is good news.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Emerging Markets, Europe, Fiscal policy, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Public debt | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

We May Have Avoided the Cliffs, But We Still Face High Mountains

Posted on January 23, 2013 by iMFdirect

WEO

by Olivier Blanchard

Version in Español  and عربي

Optimism is in the air, particularly in financial markets. And some cautious optimism may indeed be justified.

Compared to where we were at the same time last year, acute risks have decreased. The United States has avoided the fiscal cliff, and the euro explosion in Europe did not occur. And uncertainty is lower.

But we should be under no illusion. There remain considerable challenges ahead. And the recovery continues to be slow, indeed much too slow.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Europe, Fiscal policy, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

The Ties That Bond Us: What Demand For Government Debt Can Tell Us About the Risks Ahead

Posted on January 17, 2013 by iMFdirect

by Serkan Arslanalp and Takahiro Tsuda

It’s not news that emerging markets can be vulnerable to bouts of market volatility. Investors often pull sudden stops—they stop buying or start selling off their holdings of government bonds.

But what has become apparent in recent years is that advanced economy government bond markets can also experience investor outflows, and associated runs. At the same time, some traditional and new safe haven countries have seen their borrowing costs drop to historic lows as they experience rising inflows from foreign investors.

Our new research shows that advanced economies’ exposure to refinancing risk and changes in government borrowing costs depend mainly on who is holding the bonds— the demand side for government debt.

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Asia, Emerging Markets, Europe, Finance, Financial Crisis, Financial regulation, Financial sector supervision, G-20, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Debt in a Time of Protests

Posted on October 16, 2012 by iMFdirect

by Nemat Shafik

As the world economy continues to struggle, people are taking to the streets by the thousands to protest painful cuts in public spending designed to reduce government debt and deficits. This fiscal fury is understandable.

People want to regain the confidence they once had about the future when the economy was booming and more of us had jobs.

But after a protracted economic crisis, this will take planning, fair burden-sharing, and time itself.

If history is any guide, there is no silver bullet to debt reduction. Experience shows that it takes time to reduce government debt and deficits. Sustained efforts over many years will ultimately lead to success.

Most countries have made significant headway in rolling back fiscal deficits. By the end of next year in more than half of the world’s advanced economies, and about the same share of emerging markets, we expect deficits —adjusted for the economic cycle—to be at the same level or lower than before the global economic crisis hit in 2008.

But with a sluggish recovery, efforts at controlling debt stocks are taking longer to yield results, particularly in advanced economies. Gross public debt is nearing 80 percent of GDP on average for advanced economies—over 100 percent in several of them—and we do not expect it to stabilize before 2014-15.

So what can governments do to ease the pain and pave the way for successful debt reduction?

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Filed under: Advanced Economies, Annual Meetings, Asia, Economic Crisis, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, Finance, Fiscal policy, growth, IMF, Inequality, International Monetary Fund, Politics, Public debt, recession | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

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