"The Great Recession" was preceded by a prolonged period of high growth accompanied by low and stable inflation, the so called "The Great Moderation". In Spain, a similar pattern was observed: in fact, potential growth estimates were trending upwards, implying that output gaps remained...

The fallout from the 2008 financial crisis has been particularly acute in the euro area Member States of the south-western rim and in the new EU Member States, due to their previously accumulated macroeconomic and financial imbalances. The perception that the euro environment provided a solid...

New EU members share two very marked features which have conflicting implications for the evolution of their real exchange rates in the long run: accelerated growth and systematic current account imbalances, which would anticipate, respectively an appreciation and a depreciation of their...

After the recent crisis, a reduction was observed in global current account (“flow”) imbalances. Even so, global disequilibria as measured in terms of countries' net foreign assets (“stock imbalances”) kept increasing. This paper discusses whether stock imbalances have a stabilising or...

After the recent crisis, a reduction was observed in global current account (flow imbalances). Still, global disequilibria as measured in terms of countries' net foreign assets (stock imbalances), kept increasing. This paper studies whether stock imbalances have a stabilizing or destabilizing...