Imbalances
in sentence
916 examples of Imbalances in a sentence
In fact, the issue of large actual or potential discrepancies between aggregate savings and investment in countries or monetary zones, reflected in current-account imbalances, is at the heart of the IMF’s emerging multilateral surveillance role; it has been a focus of the G-20 as well.
The IMF’s America ProblemThe IMF’s meeting this spring was lauded as a breakthrough, with officials given a new mandate for “surveillance” of the trade
imbalances
that contribute significantly to global instability.
It will, of course, be important for the Fund to focus on global imbalances, not bilateral
imbalances.
So China can have a trade deficit with the Middle East and a trade surplus with the US, but these bilateral balances indicate nothing about China’s overall contribution to global
imbalances.
If one looks at multilateral trade imbalances, the US stands head and shoulders above all others.
Any focus on trade
imbalances
thus should center on the major global imbalance: that of the US.
The task of assessing trade
imbalances
– whom to blame and what should be done – involves both economics and politics.
Trade
imbalances
are the result, for instance, of household decisions about how much to save and how much – and what – to consume.
Ascertaining whether a country’s trade
imbalances
are the result of misguided policies or a natural consequence of its circumstances is also no easy task.
It is difficult to see how a change in China’s exchange rate would have a significant effect on either savings or investments in the US – and thus how it would redress global
imbalances.
In short, the US bears responsibility both for trade
imbalances
and the policies that might quickly be adopted to address them.
The IMF’s response to its new mission of assessing global
imbalances
will thus test its battered political legitimacy.
If the IMF’s analysis of global
imbalances
is not balanced, if it does not identify the US as the major culprit, and if it does not direct its attention on America’s need to reduce its fiscal deficits – through higher taxes for America’s richest and lower defense spending – the Fund’s relevance in the twenty-first century will inevitably decline.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the government expects to focus instead on “targeted interventions” designed to create positive incentives, correct market failures, and address social, geographical, and sectoral
imbalances.
The subject of the G-20’s recent meeting was “global imbalances.”
According to the communiqué issued by the group, the meeting focused on developing a procedure for identifying which G-20 countries have “persistently large imbalances” and why they have them.
So much for the not-so-difficult task of identifying the countries with big
imbalances.
But what about the causes of those
imbalances?
So the policy actions needed to reduce the trade and current-account
imbalances
are clear enough.
Indeed, the logic of hegemony clashes with the current phenomena of fragmentation and autonomization – think of Pakistan, for example, or Italy – which create
imbalances
and asymmetries that are not always favorable to the powerful.
Nowhere is this clearer than in discussions of the United States’ trade deficit and global financial imbalances, given economists’ tendency to reduce most economic problems to questions of savings.
But no solution is possible until we abandon the savings shortage and savings glut hypotheses and connect today’s global financial
imbalances
with global production patterns and inadequate demand in developing countries.
Egypt is currently weighed down by an unfavorable combination of slow economic growth, high unemployment, fiscal imbalances, institutional weaknesses, and poor social services – problems that are compounded by rapid population growth and poverty.
But there are significant differences and economic
imbalances
within the EU and the euro zone, reflected, for example, by increasingly divergent interest rates.
As a result, globalization’s tendency to produce macroeconomic
imbalances
and financial fragility, its adverse impact on equality and social peace in many countries, and its weak political legitimacy will continue to generate tension and periodic crises.
That will make the politics of dealing with global
imbalances
all the more difficult.
The greatest cause for concern could turn out to be
imbalances
within the eurozone.
But the real source of US trade deficits is macroeconomic
imbalances
in the US economy, such as excessive household consumption and fiscal deficits –
imbalances
that tariffs will do very little to address.
But Europe should also reflect on its own practices, including trade policy, where the EU works systematically to unbalance the global trade regime against developing countries, despite promising that those
imbalances
would be corrected in the current round of trade negotiations.
Regional
imbalances
in interbank funding can, of course, also arise in the US Federal Reserve System.
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