Monday, July 13, 2015

Micromanagement of European reforms

The agreement between Greece and its Euro partners is full of very detailed policies to be approved by the Greek government in the coming week. How did we end up in a situation where the domestic policies of a Euro country are decided by other countries? I recently wrote a paper on the European reform agenda where I had a discussion on the role of Europe in the reform process. Here are some of what I wrote in the paper which is very appropriate for what we just witnessed over the last 24 hours.

Historically Europe has served as a catalyst for reform in some of the least-advanced EU economies. Through the imposition of requirements to join certain European initiatives it has fostered enough social consensus around the need for compromises. As an example, it worked well to transform and standardize the macroeconomic institutions of European countries, especially when it comes to monetary policy and inflation.

But these dynamics are not always productive. Reform is ultimately a domestic political business where trade offs are being made between economic efficiency, social goals and the way power and income are distributed in a society. Having Europe always as the reason why reforms need to happen is likely to generate unhealthy dynamics. In addition, it is not always easy to link reforms to the benefits of European integration.

The only way to change these dynamics would be through a much more contractual and ex-ante approach to reforms. This was partly the spirit of regulations of the Maastricht Treaty that established rules of behavior to be a member of the Euro. But, as experience has shown, those were not enforceable rules. The rules only worked well as an entry condition but once the entry decisions were made the rules became very weak. Rules have been renegotiated, changed, and violated on numerous occasions. Why not make the entry conditions more binding? The reality is that if countries were asked to reform or adopt irreversible commitments before joining any process of European integration, there would be very few members of the European Union or the Euro area left.

We need to be realistic as well and Europe needs to find a way to deal with countries and governments that do not want to go along with the reform process or that they are unable to do so. At the end of the day the speed of reform remains the decision of individual countries. Its citizens are the ones that will suffer the consequences of no reforms and low growth. This is true for any country, advanced or emerging, and this is true for Europe.

The reason why the reform debate becomes more visible and relevant in the European context relative to other advanced economies that struggle with similar issues of performance is that the process of European integration might occasionally force countries to move together. When you share risk via the balance sheet of a central bank or when you design a program of transfers from rich to poor regions, the reform agenda becomes a supranational issue not anymore a pure national debate. Maybe Europe needs to find ways to separate the two. Either through a much more contractual approach to institutions that leaves no room for further negotiation (e.g. a true no bailout clause) or by changing the design of those institutions so that the links between countries and the shared risks are minimized ("less Europe"). This might be suboptimal as it might come at a cost of reducing the effectiveness of those institutions but it might be the only way to make the process of European integration and economic reforms compatible.

In summary, maybe "more Europe" is not always the solution to all the European economic problems.

Antonio Fatás

Friday, July 3, 2015

Did the IMF provide support to Syriza?

The IMF published yesterday a preliminary analysis on the debt sustainability of the Greek government. The timing of the publication, a couple of days ahead of the referendum, has triggered a variety of interpretations of the conclusions. The Greek government has quickly jumped to argue that the results confirm that government debt in Greece is not sustainable and a substantial haircut is needed.

Is the interpretation of the Greek government correct? Yes and no. The IMF analysis suggests that under reasonable assumptions on growth and interest rates for Greece, it is very difficult to imagine a path of primary budget surpluses that makes the current situation sustainable. This is what the Greek government says and in that sense it seems that the IMF is providing empirical support to their claims. However, the analysis is full of other subtleties that do not warrant this quick conclusion and that in some cases contradict the views of the Greek government.

First, the report makes it clear that since Syriza came to power the situation has deteriorated because of a combination of lower growth, lower privatization revenues and a worsening of budget balances. So here the IMF seems to support the German (and others) view that the situation would be better if the right policies were applied. The need for haircuts is partly the responsibility of the current Greek government.

Second, there is nothing new in the IMF analysis and almost everyone agrees to it, including the other Euro partners. The real issue and where there is possibly some disagreement is on how to deal with an unsustainable level of debt. Here is where the subtleties start.

Let's go back in history first. In 2012 it was also clear to most that Greek debt was on an unsustainable path. Because of this the Euro partners and bond holders agreed to a haircut on the face value, an extension of maturities as well as a reduction in interest rate that implicitly reduced the value of the Greek liabilities. How much that reduced debt is debatable but it is likely that it reduced it by about €100 Billion.

But that first restructuring was clearly not enough. What went wrong? Growth never returned, in fact, the economy continued on its path of collapsing changing all the assumptions made by the Troika at the time of the negotiation. Why did growth fail to live up to the assumptions? Because the Troika underestimated the effects of fiscal austerity (in Greece but also anywhere else) and possibly because some of the projected reforms in Greece either did not take place an they did not pay off as much and as fast as planned.

What about going forward? Can we be more realistic regarding Greek prospects of growth? That's what they IMF is doing now. It forecasts growth in Greece to be input 1.5% in the long term. This is what I would say a very pessimistic number (even if it might still be realistic). It assumes that a country that has a GDP per capita of less than 50% of the most advanced economies in the world will fail to converge to that level, in fact it is likely to get stuck at that level or even diverge.

And here is where the Greek government and the IMF projections might be at odds. The Greek government argument is that once debt is reduced and all the reforms are implemented, the Greek economy will take off and start finally growing. But if growth returns, is debt really unsustainable Greek debt is unsustainable because the Greek economy will not grow in the long run (and this is not just about austerity). But if the Greek government is right and the reduction in debt does indeed raise the potential growth of Greece then the current debt level might be closer to being sustainable than what the IMF says. In other words, the IMF tells the Greek government something that they want to hear (debt needs to be reduced) but in an scenario that the Greek government cannot accept (growth is going to be dismal for decades).

The way out of this inconsistency is to make default a function of GDP growth rates. This goes back to the old idea of indexing the value of the debt (or the interest rate) to economic growth (here is a very good description of its virtues from Paolo Mauro). If the Greek government is right and Greece growth prospects are very good, the debtors will get back most of what they are owed. But if the IMF is right and growth in Greece will remain low over the coming decades, the debtors will get a lot less, whatever the low growth prospects allow for.

Antonio Fatás

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Greece: negotiating without trust

The Eurozone and Greece are going through the last hours of a negotiation to ensure release of additional funds from the previous agreement and possibly setting the basis for the next one.

The leaked details of the latest Greek proposal and the Eurozone counterproposal is full of details and discussions around technical issues (for example, whether the pension reform is effective from October 31 or July 1st). But what the technical discussions reveal is a negotiation that can only lead to an outcome that will not satisfy any of the parties.

Reading between the lines of the technical details we see the Eurozone asking Greece for a strong package of front loaded fiscal measures many of which are exactly the ones the Greek government wanted to avoid as they go against the electoral platform under which they were elected.

It would be very easy to criticize Germany, Brussels (and the IMF) for failing to see that we are possibly doing again the same mistakes as in previous agreements and that this one is also bound to fail. But the reality is that it is very difficult to imagine any other type of agreement give the lack of trust between the two parties.

Many argue that this government should not be asked to pay for the mistakes of previous governments. After all Syriza was not in power when the Greek government and the Greek economy were running very large deficits. This is correct but it is also true that Syriza was not elected on a platform of economic reform, even if some of the economic reforms being discussed are not contrary to their ideas.

I am very sympathetic to the logic that the Greek finance minister Varoufakis has very well expressed that Greece needs growth first and that insisting on fiscal austerity will not deliver the necessary growth. But I also understand the view of the Eurozone when negotiating with a Greek government that was elected on a platform that is not clear that will deliver sustainable growth. Because of the lack of trust, what the Eurozone is looking for in this negotiation is a strong early commitment that the Greek government is willing to take steps that might go against its own electoral platform. In an ideal world those steps would all be about making growth happen: reforms in an environment where demand is not a constraint for growth. But many reforms cannot be implemented in the short run so the only way to get a signal of commitment is to put on a table a set of fiscal measures to improve primary balances, what the Greek government wanted to avoid.

So we are back to a proposal that looks too much like the previous ones and it is very likely that, even if there is an agreement over the coming hours or days, we will witness again in the near future yet another negotiation between Greece and the Eurozone once it is clear that the current plan will not work.

This is the unfortunate outcome of a negotiation that started without trust between the two parties and where the only possible outcomes where both suboptimal: either another unrealistic agreement or a break up of the negotiations that leads to a Greek default and possibly exit from the Euro area. In the next days we will see which of the two (bad) scenarios turns into reality.

Antonio Fatás

Monday, June 8, 2015

Interest rates: natural or artificial?








1. Interest rates are low everywhere in the world.
2. Inflation remains low everywhere in the world.


Antonio Fatás

Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Greek Dra(ch)ma is back?

One more round of negotiations between Greece and the rest of is European partners to seek a last-minute solution before the Greek government runs out of money. Negotiations could end up going in any direction. Greece is unlikely to score a massive win but it could buy itself some time if there is agreement around a reasonable set of reforms that are to be implemented over the coming months. Reforms that could be sold domestically very differently from the way they are presented in Brussels.

What Greece really wants out of these negotiations is straightforward: a restructuring/reduction of its current debt that allows them to survive over the coming years with a primary balance in (small) surplus. This would mean that their pressure is gone and and that they can implement any policies they want without worrying about new loans as long as they can keep a primary surplus, which might be feasible given the current state of the budget. In return it will be easy to promise reforms that can have enough support at home (removing bureaucratic barriers, broadening the tax base, improve government efficiency). Of course, when it come to the actual implementation of those reforms, the support could turn into strong opposition. Greece also does not want to leave the Euro. Support among Greek voters is very high and the government understands the uncertainty and likely downside risk that they would face if Greece has exit the Euro area.

What the European partners want is much less clear. They would love to get paid back on all the current Greek government debt that they hold but that's unlikely to happen. Some would love to see Greece outside of the Euro area so that they do not have to deal with this again. There is a sense that whatever agreement is found now will not be the last one. The lack of trust has reached levels that has made it clear to some that Grexit is the best long-term outcome. But they are afraid of the consequences, both in the short run and in the long run in terms of credibility of the membership that would be left after Greece was gone. What no one wants is an agreement that does not offer a permanent solution to the problem. But is this possible? You need a credible commitment from Greece on implementing reforms in a way that can guarantee a large enough primary balance so that the possibility of future crisis goes down significantly. But credible commitment on reforms is not feasible. Reforms take time to be designed and implemented and there is enough uncertainty about growth and interest rates to ensure that a future crisis can be ruled out.

The intersection between what the Greek government wants and what the European partners want is an empty set today (once we remove all the unfeasible solutions). And that's why a risk of collapse in the negotiations is real. The only thing that can stop the collapse is the willingness by Germany (and the others) to compromise out of the fear that a default by Greece and the possibility of an exit from the Euro area can generate a crisis of unknown consequences. No doubt that this fear has decreased over the last years as markets are happy with low rates on Spanish, Italian debt while these negotiations are going on. But maybe they are happy because they assume a last-minute compromise will be reached (a good prediction given what we have seen in the past) or maybe because they believe the ECB could protect the other periphery countries from contagion with yet another 'whatever it takes' statement.

But the power of the ECB to contain a potential exit from from Euro is not infinite. It will depend on how the exit is played. Maybe they can contain some of the economic risk but what about the political risk?  With coming elections in key EU countries (UK, Spain) with interesting political dynamics when it comes to EU membership or policies, the range of political outcomes remains very wide to feel comfortable about an exit from the Euro area.

Antonio Fatás

Monday, March 2, 2015

Missing the anti-inflation central bankers.






And it gets even worse when he looks back at 2011:







Antonio Fatás

Thursday, February 26, 2015

The Taylor rule conundrum











Antonio Fatás