THE IMPACT OF BUDGET DEFICITS ON REAL INTEREST RATES: AN INTERNATIONAL EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Abstract In this study, we analyse the factors that have led to the fall of real interest rates on the long term. We show that this tendency, i.e. the fall in real interest rates, which began three decades ago in developed countries is well explained by the emergence and growth of the global saving glut. We formulate the hypothesis according to which the increase in the global excess saving is mostly the result of a process whereby countries place themselves on a secondary position vis-à-vis the US (i.e. secondarity) with regard to taking and managing risks which occur after a crisis. The ensuing peculiarity of global excess saving is that it is generated in an increasing number of countries or economic areas, with the overwhelming part located in a few of them, while the overwhelming part of the global deficit of savings is located in the US. Secondarity is caused both by governments, which have sought to move to excess saving, as was the case of Asian countries (Bernanke, 2005), or to capping budget deficits, as it happened in the Eurozone and in the EU, and by the free choice of every economic agent in the private sector. Secondarity represents a major cause for a vicious circle in which the decline in interest rates to ever lower levels has led to the emergence of financial bubbles, whose bursting requires the further reduction of interest rates, thus generating new bubbles and so on and so forth. Misinterpreted in real time as the “Great Moderation”, this vicious circle went unobserved.

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Government Budget Deficits and Exchange Rate Determination: Evidence from Pakistan

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v31i4iipp.871-882 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 31 (4II) ◽

pp. 871-882 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nadeem A. Burney ◽

Naeem Akjitar

Keyword(s):

Exchange Rate ◽

Interest Rates ◽

Real Exchange Rate ◽

Relative Effectiveness ◽

Policy Instrument ◽

Nominal Exchange Rate ◽

Relative Price ◽

Budget Deficits ◽

The Real ◽

The Impact

It is now generally accepted that the real exchange rate is a key relative price in an econom/ Changes in the real exchange rate influence foreign trade flows, balance of payments, the structure and level of production, allocation of resources, etc. While the real exchange rate is an endogenous variable that responds to both exogenous as well as policy-induced shocks, the nominal exchange rate is usually taken as a policy instrument. The two rates, however, are found to be related to each other. 2 For effective policy-making, it is imperative to have some idea about different factors that influence the real exchange rate. Equally important is the knowledge of the manner in which the real exchange rate responds to changes in the exogenous variables. While there is a general consensus that the impact of various exogenous shocks on the exchange rate is transmitted through four broad channels, namely, (i) absolute prices, (ii) relative prices, (iii) income, and (iv) interest rates, the relative importance of each of these channels is found to vary across countries. In general, it depends on the degree of openness of the economy and the relative effectiveness of the fiscal and the monetary sectors within a country.

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