Regional Economic Out look Europe Securing Recovery
October 2009
© 2009 International Monetary Fund
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Regional economic outlook: Europe. – Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund, 2009. — (World economic and financial surveys, 0258-7440)
p. ; cm.
“Oct. 09.”
“Securing recovery.”
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-58906-859-9
1. Economic forecasting – Europe. 2. Economic indicators – Europe. 3. Fiscal policy – Europe. I. International Monetary Fund. II. Series: World economic and financial surveys.
HC240.R445 2009
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Contents
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Executive Summary
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1. Outlook: Beyond the Crisis
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Fragile Recovery
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Strong Policy Response
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Further Policy Action Required
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2. The Crisis and Potential Output
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Worrying About an Unobservable
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Long-Term Effects
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Medium-Term Effects
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Policy Implications
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3. Implications of the Fall in Potential Output for Macroeconomic Policies
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Crisis Impact on Monetary Policy
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Impact of the Crisis on Fiscal Policy
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4. Policies in Emerging Economies for Coping with Heightened Risk During Recovery
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Facing a Riskier Environment
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Adverse Effects on the Path to Recovery
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Challenging Policymakers
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Policy Options
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Conclusions and Policy Implications
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References
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Boxes
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1. Employment and Productivity Dynamics Around Recessions: Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom
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2. Asset Price Swings, Monetary Policy, and Prudential Policy: A European View
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3. Currency Mismatches in Emerging Europe
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4. Managing Fiscal Risks Stemming from Public Interventions to Support Financial Systems
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5. Risks to Medium-Term Growth and Convergence in Emerging Europe
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6. Effect of the Financial Crisis on Potential Growth in Western Europe
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Tables
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1. European Countries: Real GDP Growth and CPI Inflation, 2006–10
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2. European Countries: External and Fiscal Balances, 2006–10
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3. IMF Support for European Countries Affected by the Global Crisis
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4. Gross Value-Added Growth and Contributions, 1980–95 and 1995–2005
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5. Potential Output and Output Gaps in the Euro Area
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6. Macroeconomic Performance Under Output Gap Uncertainty
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7. Fiscal Adjustment Required in Response to Various Crisis Scenarios
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8. Volatility of Shocks in the Euro Area versus Shocks in the Emerging Economy, Precrisis and Crisis
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Figures
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1. Euro Area: Contribution to Growth, 2006–09
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2. Selected European Countries and the United States: Unemployment, January 1999–August 2009
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3. Euro Area: Yield Curves and Equity Markets
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4. Selected European Countries: Growth of Real Credit to Private Sector, January 2006–May 2009
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5. Euro Area: Real Bank Credit and GDP Growth, 2000:Q1–2009:Q2
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6. Selected European Countries: Headline and Core Inflation, January 2006–July 2009
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7. Selected European Countries: Key Short-Term Indicators
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8. Selected European Countries: Bankruptcies, 2005–09
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9. Selected Countries: Employment Over the Business Cycle
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10. Selected Countries: Central Banks’ Total Assets, January 2007–August 2009
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11. Selected EU Countries: Debt Level and Cumulative Fiscal Deficit
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12. Selected Countries: Average Gross Value-Added Growth, 1995–2005
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13. Euro Area: Potential (Medium-Term) Growth with Different Methodologies, 1993:Q2–2009:Q1
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14. Euro Area: “Real-Time” and “True” Output Gaps, 1993:Q1–2007:Q2
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15. The Benefits of a Price Stability Commitment Under Output Gap Uncertainty
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16. Selected European Countries: Policy Rates, 2007–09
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17. Euro Area: Potential Output Scenarios, 1999–2014
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18. Selected European Countries: Projected Changes in Public Debt
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19. Selected European Countries: Required Improvement of Primary Balance
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20. Selected European Countries: Bond Spreads–Level and Volatility, January 2006–June 2009
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21. Selected European Countries: Quarterly Revisions in Fiscal Balance Forecast, 2004:Q1–2009:Q2
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22. Selected European Countries: WEO Revisions in Projected Government Debt for 2010 in April 2009 over September 2008
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23. Selected European Countries: Exchange Rate Volatility, 2004:Q1–2009:Q1
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24. Emerging Economies Have Higher Volatility
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25. Effect of the Crisis in the Emerging Economy
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26. Limiting Discretionary Fiscal Policy Shocks in the Emerging Economy
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27. Reacting to the Exchange Rate in the Emerging Economy
This Regional Economic Outlook: Europe—Securing Recovery was written by Thomas Harjes, Srobona Mitra, and Emil Stavrev under the guidance of Marek Belka, Helge Berger, Ajai Chopra, and Luc Everaert, with contributions from Ravi Balakrishnan, Ioan Carabenciov, Wim Fonteyne, Roberto Garcia-Saltos, Michel Juillard, Douglas Laxton, Edouard Martin, Troy Matheson, Johan Mathisen, Susanna Mursula, Silvia Sgherri, and Kadir Tanyeri. This Regional Economic Outlook: Europe was coordinated by the EU Policies and Regional Studies Division of the IMF’s European Department. Pavel Lukyantsau and Xiangming Fang, Amara Myaing and Dominique Raelison, and Dana Lane provided research, administrative, and editorial assistance, respectively. Martha Bonilla, Sean Culhane, and Marina Primorac of the External Relations Department handled the editing and oversaw its production. The report is based on data available as of September 17, 2009. The views expressed in this report are those of the IMF staff and should not be attributed to Executive Directors or their national authorities.
Executive Summary
The current European recession, one of the deepest and longest on record, is showing signs of bottoming out. After gathering pace through early 2009, the contraction appears to have ended at mid-2009, helped by rebounding confidence and a tentative pickup in global trade. Headline inflation remains low, reflecting developments in commodity prices and weak demand, especially investment. In most emerging economies, economic activity and inflation have followed similar paths, but with more heterogeneity. Especially in countries that have experienced steep declines in capital inflows, the downturn is easing more slowly.
Although policy frameworks in Europe typically take a medium-term approach, policymakers adapted and moved steadily to address many of the policy and coordination challenges posed by the crisis. Interest rate cuts, unconventional monetary measures, and rapidly accumulating fiscal deficits helped put a floor under falling economic activity. And an array of financial sector interventions succeeded in dissipating systemic hazards and lifting risk appetite and asset prices, even though their implementation and coordination was complicated at first by the unprecedented nature of the crisis and the lack of established European processes for dealing with it.
The recovery is likely to be slow and fragile. Because of the ongoing rebalancing of global demand, Europe cannot count on exports alone to drive the recovery. At the same time, the drag from rising unemployment and scarcity of credit as banks continue to deleverage their balance sheets will weigh on economic activity. The risks around this baseline are broadly balanced. On the upside, the pickup in global trade could prove stronger and longer lasting than currently anticipated. On the downside, bad loans tied to the recession could further aggravate tensions in the financial sector. Moreover, overhangs of foreign currency-denominated debt in emerging Europe create vulnerabilities that could resonate across the continent through the highly integrated banking system and tight trade links. Another risk is tied to consumption, which could suffer if employment adjusted only slowly to the cycle, raising the prospect of a jobless recovery, with possibly negative repercussions for confidence, consumption, and investment.
Beyond the short run, the recovery is likely to be hampered by the impact of the crisis on potential output and Europe’s well-known structural rigidities. Europe’s medium-term growth outlook has been weakened by the drop in investment that followed the crisis, threats of increasing structural unemployment, and the end of financial sector, real estate, and construction booms in a number of countries (Chapter 2). While the exact impact of the crisis is hard to pin down and some of the developments affecting potential output are bound to correct themselves, others tie into long-standing European issues, such as high levels of employment protection and unrealized growth opportunities in the market for services, particularly in advanced economies.
Against this background, policymakers should focus their attention on securing a durable and strong recovery. In the near term, they should adopt a more resolute and proactive approach to assessing the balance sheet risks faced by banks, and take action to recapitalize or restructure viable institutions and resolve others. In addition, the welcome overhaul of the European Union’s (EU) financial stability arrangements should be implemented swiftly to guarantee the effective coordination of financial supervision across borders, including that between emerging and advanced economies, and to guide the implementation of macroprudential regulation to guard against future financial sector risks. Fundamental progress on comprehensive cross-border crisis management is still needed, including the creation of tools for early intervention and cost-sharing rules.
At the same time, monetary and fiscal policy need to move carefully to sustain the upswing while preparing to disengage from the extraordinary measures put in place during the crisis. Although the fragility of the recovery requires fiscal policy to follow through with planned stimuli and letting automatic stabilizers work, sustainability concerns demand a strong consolidation effort—also because of the looming fiscal costs of Europe’s rapidly aging population. Monetary policy will need to remain supportive for the time being and keep all options open. In the advanced economies, there might still be additional room for maneuver through a more forceful signal of the intent to keep interest rates low and the extension of nonstandard measures. But these policies are not without costs and raise the possibility of market dislocations, moral hazard, and accumulation of risks on the much-increased balance sheets of the central banks. Central banks should thus plan to exit as soon as the recovery takes hold.
Potential growth is tightly linked to all elements of the European policy agenda. Moving fast to repair the damage the crisis has caused to potential output will make for a more dynamic and robust recovery, which, among other things, will strengthen fiscal sustainability and ease exit problems. In the advanced economies, policymakers should pursue opportunities to reform labor and product markets and make every effort to rejuvenate the Lisbon Agenda. In most emerging economies, structural flexibility that allows a shift of resources and labor to the production of tradable goods and services will be important for ensuring further progress in catching up with income levels in the advanced economies, especially if capital flows to the emerging European economies remained subdued.
The uncertainty surrounding the size of the drop in potential output due to the crisis is considerable, and policymakers will need to take it into account (Chapter 3). Central banks must clearly communicate their views on the path of potential output and its implications for price stability to anchor inflation expectations and limit the costs of policy mistakes. Given the impact of the crisis on public finances, fiscal policy should err on the side of caution and start the necessary consolidation as soon as the state of the cycle allows.
The effects of the crisis are also likely to linger with respect to macroeconomic volatility in many emerging markets (Chapter 4). Financial markets have developed a keen eye for external and internal vulnerabilities. In particular, fiscal sustainability concerns, stemming partly from worries about the extent of problems in the financial sector, have triggered a decompression of interest rate spreads and have increased exchange rate volatility over and above the effects of the global shocks hitting the region. In the short run, policies to stabilize the financial sector and deal with foreign debt overhangs will be helpful. But to address the more lasting volatility shifts, policymakers will profit particularly from introducing frameworks that steady fiscal policy around a sustainable path and improve financial stability arrangements. Steps in this direction would also support growth through lowering perceived investor risk and interest rates.