scholarly journals France

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (245) ◽  
Author(s):  

Growth slowed last year as the cyclical recovery ran its course and temporary domestic factors, coupled with slowing global growth, weighed on demand. Nonetheless, activity remained resilient relative to peers, and the labor market continued to improve. The fiscal deficit declined modestly, but public debt reached an all-time high. The government’s structural reform agenda is being put in place and growth is expected to gradually return to its potential level over the medium run. However, risks have risen, related to a disorderly Brexit, trade tensions, and a softening of activity in the euro area, but also to a slowdown in the domestic reform momentum.

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calliope Spanou

The experience of Greece under the macro-economic adjustment programmes represents an intriguing case of the impact of external conditionality on the process of implementing domestic structural reform. After discussing the concept of reform capacity, the article looks into the specifics of its interaction with policy conditionality, in order to elaborate to what extent external constraint unleashes or hinders reform potential. In doing so, the article shows that it is necessary to take into account the nature of the reform agenda and the impact of strong external leverage on the capacity of the domestic political system to translate requirements into reforms. It concludes that external pressure through policy conditionality has moved things forward. However, its in-built side-effects hardly allowed to change the pattern of political operation, while they inversely affected political and therefore reform sustainability. The wider implications of this case study point to the need for going beyond assumptions regarding reform incentives to look into the reality of domestic reform dynamics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (07) ◽  
pp. 2698-2716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pompeo Della Posta

The application of exchange rate target zones modeling to interest rates allows interpreting the puzzles that emerged with the public debt euro area crisis, namely the nonlinear behavior of the interest rates and the fact that some stand-alone countries, not belonging to the euro area, have not been subject to speculative attacks in spite of equally large public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratios. As a matter of fact, this model shows that in the case of a noncredible upper threshold for the interest rate (that may be due to both the lack of room for increasing further the required government primary surplus and/or the absence of a monetary authority acting as a lender of last resort), the resulting public debt unsustainability determines an interest rate nonlinearity and makes the crisis possible for public debt levels that would be stable in the presence of a credible interest rate target.


2018 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 118-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roel Beetsma ◽  
Massimo Giuliodori ◽  
Jesper Hanson ◽  
Frank de Jong
Keyword(s):  

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-46
Author(s):  
Giuliana Andreopoulos ◽  
Alexandros Panayides
Keyword(s):  

Subject Prospects for the global economy to end-2016. Significance Global growth could accelerate in the second half of 2016. Some emerging economies are facing better conditions thanks to the weaker dollar and some rebound in commodity prices, while others remain in recession. US growth slowed in the first quarter, while Japan's government just avoided a relapse into recession. Euro-area growth is robust compared to its recent trends, but cannot be relied upon to provide much support for the rest of the global economy.


Significance The package could be the government's swan song. One coalition party, the centre-right Bridge (Croatian: Most) of Independent Lists, strongly supported a reform agenda from the beginning, but Croatia's main nationalist party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), did not. This, in addition to key appointments, has become a major point of dispute between them, blocking decision-making. HDZ leader Tomislav Karamarko has been frustrated in his ambition to control the government and especially the security apparatus. Impacts Political instability could cause further political and ethnic tensions, with uncertain outcomes. Persistent deadlock will worsen Croatia's parlous economic and social situation. Instability could frustrate consolidating Croatia's exit from its six-year recession in 2015 and reducing the public debt from 87% of GDP.


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