欧州での景気退行の原因は財政削減だが、財政赤字削減と貿易赤字?削減による財政健全化は必要、問題はその速さ
OPINIÓN
Un rayo de esperanza en la tormenta de la zona euro
Lo que está en tela de juicio es el ritmo del inevitable ajuste
Huw Pill Madrid 30 DIC 2012 - 23:00 CET
OPINION
A ray of hope in the storm in the euro zone
What is at stake is the pace of the inevitable adjustment
Huw Pill Madrid 30 DIC 2012 - 23:00 CET
The outlook for economic activity in the eurozone for the next 18 months are bleak. At Goldman Sachs estimate that the current downturn in the area will continue next year, while in 2014 we do not expect strong growth.
The deleveraging and fiscal consolidation are the immediate causes of this economic weakness. The Eurozone entered the current crisis with economic and financial imbalances to be corrected. In this context, strengthening public and private balance sheets through debt reduction and consolidation is not optional but necessary. What is at stake is the pace and efficiency of the inevitable adjustment.
The process is being carried out, but it is so painful as necessary for the eurozone threatens to become a disaster for any of its members. Having accumulated major imbalances before and during the financial crisis, the viability of the euro currency in certain peripheral countries is questionable. If financial markets have doubts about the sustainability of the eurozone break factors as the risk of bankruptcy and renaming, increase funding types and markets are segmented. It also activates a vicious cycle of shrinking growth and harden financing conditions. This reinforces fears about the sustainability of the euro. And far from implementing an ordered-but costly-adjustment process, economies go into meltdown risk.
Usually attributed to the loss of price competitiveness, produced during the first decade of monetary union, the responsibility of macroeconomic imbalances. The periphery wage costs increased at higher rates than Germany, which reduced its share of the European market. As a result, the trade deficit grew within the euro zone.
Diagnosis recommends a clear choice: to correct the situation requires the periphery regain competitiveness. The European economic analysis team at Goldman Sachs has calculated the depreciation should be done if we only consider the price factor. Keep in mind that in the monetary union no longer has the nominal exchange rate to help the adjustment, so that the real depreciation of deflationary measures required to reduce wages.
What is striking about these results is the magnitude of the necessary depreciation. Assuming that the economic structure will not change, Spain and France need to lose at least 30% of wages compared to Germany to restore sustainability in the context of full employment. We think that such wage cuts are politically and economically unviable drawbacks, at least in the short term. Do you mean that the eurozone is doomed?
To avoid this conclusion, we need to identify alternative adjustment mechanisms that do not require such severe wage adjustments. Although small countries (Greece and Portugal) may be eligible for other large, this approach is impossible for Spain and France. They are simply too big. And the suppression of domestic demand due to a strategy that assumes mass unemployment and politically unfeasible lasting: threatening social cohesion.
Then, to reduce the necessary real depreciation to politically acceptable levels, Spanish and French economies have to restructure, through strategies tailored to the specific circumstances of each country.
Spain's problems come from the housing bubble: much borrowed abroad to homes that did not need. Speaking in a simplistic manner, what the country needs is to stop building homes and dedicate the resources invested in such work to manufacturing and export. Exports can be used to reduce debt.
The good news comes in duplicate: Spain has largely stopped residential construction and exports are growing fast. But the bad news is that the costs associated with economic restructuring are substantial, as the labor and financial markets do not fully conform to transfer resources from one sector to another. The unemployment rate is the most obvious and immediate difficulties being experienced by this setting.
The macroeconomic impact of these costs leaves Spain weak and vulnerable. And although it is of little consolation to those who have lost their jobs, there is a ray of hope: the necessary restructuring will lead to a more balanced economy and competitive in the future.
However, the required adjustment is less profiled France. The French economy also needs resources to relocate commercial sectors to tackle its chronic external deficit, but, unlike Spain, is subject to distortion different: instead of a bloated construction sector, has a very large public sector. We need a public spending cuts if the country wants to launch the transformation, but political obstacles in making this decision are many. Although the authorities recognize the need to improve competitiveness, are shunning the commitment to slim the state. The recent debate on industrial policy is proof of that.
In our opinion, the eurozone can not work without economic structural changes in France and Spain. The latter is doing homework and suffering, at present, the costs of unemployment. However, for the current efforts of Spain crystallized in greater stability for the future, France also has to do its part.
Huw Pill is chief European economist at Goldman Sachs.
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