Philip Muggenthaler-Gerathewohl
- 30 April 2025
- ECONOMIC BULLETIN - ARTICLEEconomic Bulletin Issue 3, 2025Details
- Abstract
- This article analyses the medium-term fiscal-structural plans that euro area countries have submitted under the revised Stability and Growth Pact. It discusses the fiscal and economic implications of this framework over the short and medium term, also factoring in – on a preliminary basis and acknowledging the major uncertainty ahead – the recent proposal by the European Commission to activate the national escape clause in the Stability and Growth Pact in a coordinated manner. The EU’s new economic governance framework builds on the premise that fiscal sustainability, reforms and investment are mutually reinforcing and should be fostered as part of an integrated approach. The article emphasises the importance of launching the new framework effectively and ensuring appropriate monitoring of reform and investment commitments in the plans. This is also necessary to ensure that additional spending on defence does not endanger fiscal sustainability in the medium term.
- JEL Code
- H11 : Public Economics→Structure and Scope of Government→Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government
H50 : Public Economics→National Government Expenditures and Related Policies→General
H54 : Public Economics→National Government Expenditures and Related Policies→Infrastructures, Other Public Investment and Capital Stock
H60 : Public Economics→National Budget, Deficit, and Debt→General
H68 : Public Economics→National Budget, Deficit, and Debt→Forecasts of Budgets, Deficits, and Debt
- 28 April 2025
- ECONOMIC BULLETIN - BOXEconomic Bulletin Issue 3, 2025Details
- Abstract
- This box provides a model-based analysis of the impact of discretionary fiscal policy measures on economic growth and inflation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as reflected in the March 2025 ECB staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area. Fiscal policy lent substantial support to the euro area economy in response to the pandemic and the energy crisis, while adding to public deficits and debt. Overall, the analysis shows that discretionary fiscal policy measures had a strong positive impact on real GDP growth during the years 2020-2022 and were broadly neutral thereafter owing to their partial reversal. They are also estimated to have had an upward effect on inflation overall, particularly during the years 2023-2024. Having introduced energy and inflation compensatory measures in 2022, which helped contain inflation, governments started to withdraw them from 2023. This unwinding contributed to a build-up of inflationary pressures resulting from the fiscal stimulus in previous years.
- JEL Code
- E62 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook→Fiscal Policy
O40 : Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth→Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity→General
E31 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→Price Level, Inflation, Deflation