Read more about the article Global current account imbalances

Global current account imbalances

After peaking in 2007 at around 6% of world GDP, global current-account imbalances declined to 3% of world GDP in the last few years. But they have never left entirely the spotlight, albeit acquiring a different configuration from that which marked the trajectory prior to the global financial crisis (GFC). This is not because they threaten global financial stability, but mainly because they reveal asymmetries in adjustment and post-GFC recovery between surplus and deficit economies, and because of the risk of sparking waves of trade protectionism. They also reveal the sub-par performance of the global economy in terms of foregone product and employment, i.e. a post-crisis global economic recovery below its potential.

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Read more about the article Climbing a High Ladder – Development in the Global Economy

Climbing a High Ladder – Development in the Global Economy

This book approaches the opportunities and challenges faced by developing countries to raise their per capita income levels during the recent phase of globalization. After dealing with the post-global financial crisis economic landscape in advanced economies, it deals with the windows of opportunity opened by trade and financial globalization for developing countries to climb the income ladder. Domestic preconditions for a developing country to benefit from those windows are then pointed out. China, Brazil, and Sub-Saharan Africa are presented as case studies. The book ends with an assessment of the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the global economy.

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Read more about the article Global imbalances, coronavirus, and safe assets

Global imbalances, coronavirus, and safe assets

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released, on August 4th, its ninth annual External Sector Report, where current account imbalances and asset-liability stocks of 30 systemically large economies are approached. This time the report went beyond looking the previous year and tried to anticipate what will be some of the impacts of the still on-going COVID-19 crisis. The report shows that the global economy entered the COVID-19 crisis with a configuration of external imbalances that has persisted since 2013, with a corresponding elevation of stocks of foreign assets and liabilities. While the outbreak of COVID-19 has brought a deep contraction to world trade and a substantial realignment of exchange rates, the IMF does not expect dramatic changes in the picture of global imbalances, differently from the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2018-19. Additionally, we should take note of how country-level mismatches between demand and supply of safe assets, leading to cross-border flows and imbalances, may also be affected.

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Read more about the article Threat of ‘currency bullying’

Threat of ‘currency bullying’

The possibility of mutually damaging financial volatility in the US and China may limit the extent of 'currency bullying' being used as a proxy in the countries' trade war. Nonetheless, rhetoric from Washington is likely to remain clamorous as the US trade and current account deficits rise and global imbalances worsen.

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Read more about the article The Global Economy Remains Unbalanced

The Global Economy Remains Unbalanced

Global imbalances have not gone away as an issue, as they reveal that the global economic recovery may have been sub-par because of asymmetric excess surpluses in some countries and output below potential in many others. The end of the “era of global imbalances” may have been called too early. Lord Keynes’ argument about the asymmetry of adjustments between deficit and surplus economies remains stronger than ever.

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Read more about the article Whither Emerging Markets Foreign Exchange Reserves

Whither Emerging Markets Foreign Exchange Reserves

After a exponential rise in foreign exchange reserves accumulation by emerging markets from 2000 onwards, the tide seems to have turned south since mid-2014. Changes in capital flows and commodity prices have been major factors behind the inflection, with the new direction expected to remain, given the context of the global economy going forward. Although it is too early to gauge whether the on-going relative unwinding of such reserves defenses will lead to vulnerability in specific emerging markets, the payoff from strengthening domestic policies has broadly increased.

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Read more about the article Managing Economic Policy in a Multipolar World
Workers maintain the thermal power station at Takoradi, Ghana, June 21, 2006. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst)

Managing Economic Policy in a Multipolar World

  It’s no secret that current account imbalances exist around the world. In many cases, these imbalances may be benign and merely reflect market-driven differences in savings and investment or…

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