Readers Question I’ve recently been looking up on the Eurozone financial crisis for random reasons and i don’t understand the statement in an FT article about what we must acknowledge in order to overcome the Eurozone problems. The statement goes ‘no country can be expected to generate huge primary surpluses for long periods for the …
The French are not too happy. The rating agency Moody have stripped France of their triple AAA rating – downgrading French debt to AA. [link] It probably wouldn’t be so bad, but their English neighbours still retain a AAA rating, despite having a much higher budget deficit. As the English would say, that’s just not …
Recently, a report suggested austerity can increase debt levels. Now, there is an indication that austerity could cause a decline in credit ratings. This has certainly been the experience of many European countries – who since they introduced austerity measures – have seen a reduction in their credit rating. Austerity hawks have often sold immediate …
One of the most talked about issues in US politics is the US fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff refers to the situation at the end of 2012, where a series of tax increases and spending cuts (worth $600bn) are due to come into force automatically. This amounts to This will reduce the budget deficit, but …
According to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr), fiscal consolidation in the UK is likely to increase the UK’s debt burden. Or to put it in layman’s terms there will be ‘pain, but no gain’ They model the impact of fiscal consolidation in both ‘normal’ times (scenario 1) and in the current …
Following on from previous posts – How much has government spending been cut – | How was budget deficit cut by 25%?. It will be useful to republish some data from Mainly Macro – on a post UK austerity and some facts UK Cyclically adjusted primary deficit 2010 2011 2012 2013 IMF 2 -6.1 -3.9 …
Readers Question I was wondering if you have any graphs plotting UK GDP and Unemployment against other economies which have monetary independence and their own currency. I often see graphs comparing the US with the UK. Are there any which include Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and other countries? click to enlarge Economic growth rates for selected countries. …
The amount of debt interest a government needs to pay depends on two factors: The amount of outstanding debt. The interest rate on government bonds. Higher bond yields will increase the cost of future borrowing. Note: There are quite a few different ways of measuring government debt / financial liabilities, therefore you may come across …