This 2009 Article IV Consultation highlights that the banking system of the Russian Federation is under increasing strain, and private sector credit is contracting. The authorities’ response to the crisis has been swift and substantial, driven by concerns that weaknesses in the banking...

Poland's outstanding economic performance has come under strain. Executive Directors stressed the need to strengthen fiscal and monetary policies, and accelerate structural reforms. They considered that the new strategy will strengthen the medium-term economic performance, and place Poland in a...

This 2005 Article IV Consultation highlights that Russia is in its seventh year of robust economic growth. This strong performance was ignited by the sharp depreciation in the wake of the 1998 crisis, and subsequently sustained by large terms-of-trade gains, in combination with increased...

As of September 2008, the vulnerabilities accumulated during the previous periods overlapped the devastating effects of the crisis in the new member states (NMS) of the European Union, deteriorating the main macro-indicators and increasing the economic instability, which generated a profound...

The euro crisis was typically presented as excessive fiscal deficits leading to the accumulation of unsustainable public debts. This diagnosis applied most notably in Greece and Italy, but also Portugal and Spain. Implicit in much of the analysis, and occasionally explicit, was the suggestion...

The pressures on fiscal consolidation have mounted dramatically in the wake of the Greek and then the 'contagion' crisis which followed it (across the so-called 'weakest links' Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland). It led to the setting-up of the 750 billion euro stabilisation package widely seen as...

A conference about fiscal and monetary policy in the aftermath of the financial crisis was organised on 8-9 December in Paris by the Banque de France together with the Paris School of Economics, the Euro Area Business Cycle Network and The Economic Journal. It brought together prominent...

The pressures on fiscal consolidation have mounted dramatically in the wake of the Greek and then the 'contagion' crisis which followed it (across the so-called 'weakest links' Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland). It led to the setting-up of the 750 billion euro stabilisation package widely seen as...

In this paper we empirically explore the relationship between debt and output in a panel of 72 countries over the period 1970-2014 using a vector autoregression (VAR). We document two puzzling empirical findings that contrast with what is predicted by a standard small open economy model by...