Recovery will depend on Greek cooperation with lenders

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Growth Estimate ◽  
Debt Sustainability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
Surveillance Report ◽  
Positive Assessment ◽  
Primary Surplus

Subject Greece’s relationship with its creditors. Significance The first annual GDP growth estimate for 2019 has fallen short of expectations. This is partly counterbalanced by the positive assessment of reform progress given in the European Commission’s fifth Enhanced Surveillance Report. Yet investor trust remains fragile, hinging on the Greek government’s ability to meet economic and financial targets consistently and to maintain a constructive dialogue with its international creditors. Impacts In 2020, investors’ flight to safety could undermine demand for Greek bonds. Cheaper borrowing has improved debt sustainability, supporting government attempts to renegotiate primary surplus targets with creditors. Under-execution of planned public investment could restrict economic growth in 2020.

Eurogroup deal will do little for Greek GDP growth

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Euro Area ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Economic Uncertainty ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Fiscal Discipline ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Debt Sustainability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Growth Prospects

Significance The negotiations with Greece's creditors revealed fundamental disagreements in lenders' views on the sustainability of Greece's debt and failed to address the drivers of future economic growth, once again concentrating almost exclusively on fiscal discipline. In the short term, the deal helps lift economic uncertainty and gains room to manoeuvre. The fact that debt relief measures were put on the table handed a domestic political victory to the ruling Syriza party. Impacts The IMF's drastic reassessment of debt sustainability and downward revision of Greece's growth prospects will deter foreign investors. Additional austerity measures will discourage already weak Greek 'ownership' of the programme, hindering reform progress. Polls suggest Greeks are slowly becoming more sceptical about participation in the euro-area.

Development Growth Models for Singapore and Malaysia: A Geweke Causality Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tan Khee Giap ◽  
Nguyen Le Phuong Anh ◽  
Ye Ye Denise
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Linear Dependence ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Growth Dynamics ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Causality Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Real Gdp ◽  
Long Run

Purpose Nearly five decades after undergoing a structural transformation and navigating several external shocks, both Singapore and Malaysia are now grappling with some crucial policy challenges that necessitate a course-correction in order to sustain their growth momentum, going forward. In light of the renewed interest in understanding the growth constraints faced by the two countries, this paper aims to empirically explore the drivers of economic growth in both Singapore and Malaysia, using data from 1975 to 2012. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs a novel empirical approach-the Geweke causality analysis-to investigate the causal drivers of economic growth in Singapore and Malaysia. Intuitively, the Geweke causality analysis helps us understand and measure the linear dependence and feedback between multiple time series variables. To that effect, we perform both a bi-variate as well as a multi-variate causality analysis. Findings The empirical results established using Geweke causality analysis suggest that Malaysia's new development trajectory should lie in rebalancing the economy toward greater domestic demand and building a robust services sector. The results also suggest that Singapore, on the other hand, should embrace a growth model that goes beyond relying heavily on foreign direct investment (FDI) as a source of economic growth as the linear dependence between FDI and real GDP growth appears to be weaker compared to the linear dependence between the remaining variables and the real GDP growth. Originality/value While the traditional growth accounting framework provides useful insights at the aggregate level, there is a growing literature that discusses the importance of sectoral analysis to understand structural transformations in the economies which become important to sustain productivity growth in the long-run. This is immensely relevant in the case of Malaysia and Singapore, as well, especially with the changing policy focus in these countries to overcome structural growth issues. In light of this growing discussion on the importance of understanding the growth dynamics at the sectoral level, this paper presents new empirical evidence on the growth drivers in Singapore and Malaysia with a sectoral focus.

Belize’s economic recovery will lose steam

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Current Account ◽  
Current Account Deficit ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Economic Recovery ◽  
International Reserves ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Hydropower Generation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Primary Surplus

Subject The Belize economy. Significance Belize’s economic recovery is stagnating following a severe drought that has had a harsh impact on agriculture and hydropower generation. The situation has been compounded by a slowdown in tourist arrivals following years of buoyant growth, reflecting weaker global expansion and the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which service the country. Impacts The current account deficit will remain large, with international reserves averaging just three months of imports. The primary surplus will narrow due to increasing spending on wages and public investment and weaker-than-expected revenue. This being an election year, cuts to current expenditures will probably be off the table, limiting debt reduction in the short term. Funding constraints will hit the government’s ability to pursue much-needed reforms in infrastructure and education.

Peruvian growth will again disappoint this year

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Domestic Demand ◽  
Balance Of Payments ◽  
Export Market ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Level ◽  
Poverty Levels ◽  
Roll Back

Subject Outlook for Peruvian growth. Significance With both external and domestic demand ebbing in the first few months of 2019, forecasters are reducing their estimates for GDP growth in 2019. Peru is exposed to a slowdown in growth in China, since it is by far its biggest export market and the main source of foreign investment. Public investment also appears to be slower than in previous years. Impacts Slower growth will impact negatively on employment and risk pushing up poverty levels. Business groups will increase their pressure on government to roll back social legislation on matters like labour stability. The relatively high level of reserves will cushion Peru from balance of payments pressures.

Prospects for African economies in 2019

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sub Saharan

Subject Prospects for African economies in 2019. Significance Sub-Saharan Africa’s gradual recovery is set to strengthen in 2019 with regional GDP growth seen accelerating to 3.1% from 2.7% in 2018, led by recoveries in the three largest economies -- Angola, Nigeria and South Africa. Looking ahead, economic growth is expected to average around 4% over the medium term, reflecting continuing convergence between high- and low-performing countries, although wide disparities will persist.

Swiss economic growth is set to accelerate this year

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Private Consumption ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Consumption Growth ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Low Interest Rates ◽  
Economic Outlook

Subject Economic outlook for Switzerland. Significance Switzerland’s GDP growth disappointed in the first quarter of 2017: it increased by 0.3% on a quarterly and 1.1% on a yearly basis, held back by weak private consumption growth. However, exports rebounded after the long blight of the 2015 franc appreciation shock. Impacts Private consumption should improve after stagnating in 2015-16, benefiting from the labour market recovery. Low interest rates are likely to boost private investment. Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering, electrics and the watch-making industry are likely to benefit from the expected revival in exports. Inflation is likely to average around 0.4% in 2017 and 2018.

Mexico’s 2020 budget looks highly optimistic

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Central Bank ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Fiscal Deficit ◽  
Limited Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Budget ◽  
National Economic

Significance The package comprises the national budget and revenue legislation, as well as key domestic and international macroeconomic assumptions and projections. Impacts Even if GDP growth remains poor, fiscal loosening is unlikely. The central bank may lower interest rates further to help boost the economy, but the effect of a monetary push would be relatively minor. Major projects such as the Maya Train may have some regional impact but will have a limited effect on national economic growth. Legislators may increase the expected oil price for 2020 to boost spending in some areas without increasing the fiscal deficit target.

Establishing finance-growth linkage for India: a financial conditions index (FCI) approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1032-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.K. Giri ◽  
Deven Bansod
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Real Gdp ◽  
Financial Conditions ◽  
Multiple Markets ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Purpose The global financial crisis of 2008 emphasized the need for monetary policy authorities to have a more comprehensive view of the conditions prevailing in the economy before deciding their policy stance. The purpose of this paper is to outline the construction of a financial conditions index (FCI) and investigate the possible co-integrating relationship between the economic growth and FCI. Design/methodology/approach The study employs the PCA methodology, with appropriate augmentations to handle the unbalanced panel data-sets and constructs a FCI for India. It tests the growth-predicting power of FCI by applying the auto regressive distributed lags approach to co-integration and verifies if the FCI is co-integrated with real GDP growth. It also discusses construction of a financial development index (FDI) which tracks the financial markets through M3, market capitalization and credit amount to residents. Findings The constructed FCI has a quarterly frequency and is available starting 1998q2. The long-run coefficient of FCI while predicting the real GDP growth is significant at 10 percent. The results confirm that a more-broader index FCI outperforms a narrower index FDI in growth prediction. Research limitations/implications By showing that FCI is a better growth predictor than FDI, the study establishes the importance of including the foreign exchange markets, bond markets and stock markets while summarizing the conditions in the economy. The authors hope that the FCI would be helpful to the monetary authorities in their policy decisions. Originality/value The paper adds to the few existing studies studies dealing with FCI for Indian economy and constructs a more comprehensive index which tracks multiple markets simultaneously. It also fills the gap in literature by evaluating the correlating relationship between FCI and economic growth.

The composition of productive government expenditure

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goncalo Monteiro ◽  
Stephen J. Turnovsky
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Productive Government Spending

PurposeRecent research supports the role of productive government spending as an important determinant of economic growth. Previous analyses have focused on the separate effects of public investment in infrastructure and on investment in education. This paper aims to introduce both types of public investment simultaneously, enabling the authors to address the trade‐offs that resource constraints may impose on their choice.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ a two‐sector endogenous growth model, with physical and human capital. Physical capital is produced in the final output sector, using human capital, physical capital, and government spending on infrastructure. Human capital is produced in the education sector using human capital, physical capital, and government spending on public education. The introduction of productive government spending in both sectors yields an important structural difference from the traditional two‐sector growth models in that the relative price of human to physical capital dynamics does not evolve independently of the quantity dynamics.FindingsThe model yields both a long‐run growth‐maximizing and welfare‐maximizing expenditure rate and allocation of expenditure on productive capital. The welfare‐maximizing rate of expenditure is less than the growth‐maximizing rate, with the opposite being the case with regard to their allocation. Moreover, the growth‐maximizing value of the expenditure rate is independent of the composition of government spending, and vice versa. Because of the complexity of the model, the analysis of its dynamics requires the use of numerical simulations the specific shocks analyzed being productivity increases. During the transition, the growth rates of the two forms of capital approach their common equilibrium from opposite directions, this depending upon both the sector in which the shock occurs and the relative sectoral capital intensities.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings confirm that the form in which the government carries out its productive expenditures is important. The authors have retained the simpler, but widely employed, assumption that government expenditure influences private productivity as a flow. But given the importance of public investment suggests that extending this analysis to focus on public capital would be useful.Originality/valueTwo‐sector models of economic growth have proven to be a powerful tool for analyzing a wide range of issues in economic growth. The originality of this paper is to consider the relative impact of government spending on infrastructure and government spending on human capital and the trade‐offs that they entail, both in the long run and over time.

Tests of a more comprehensive model of economic growth in lower middle-income countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh Quang Dao
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
Government Consumption ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Per Capita Gdp ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Per Capita

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a more comprehensive model of economic growth using a sample of 28 lower middle-income developing countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors modify the conventional neoclassical growth model to account for the impact of the increase in the number of people working relative to the total population and that of the increase in the value added per worker over time. The authors then extend this model by incorporating the role of trade, government consumption, and human capital in output growth. Findings Regression results show that over three quarters of cross-lower middle-income country variations in per capita GDP growth rate can be explained by per capita growth in the share of public expenditures on education in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of government consumption in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of imports in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of manufactured exports in the GDP (not of that of total exports in the GDP), and the growth of the working population relative to the total population. Practical implications Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in these countries identify policy fundamentals that are essential for economic growth. Originality/value To address the simultaneity bias, the authors develop a simultaneous equations model and are able to show that such model is more robust and helps explains cross-country variations in per capita GDP growth over the 2000-2014 period.

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