Articles on the economy
There are considerable differences between countries of the euro area in the prevalence of variable rate bank loans. According to recent research by the authors, the extent to which bank loans are variable rate loans influences how the key ECB interest rates affect the demand for corporate loans.
A considerable proportion of the corporate loan stock in the euro area consists of loans with a fixed – rather than a variable – rate of interest. However, this proportion differs by industry and even more so by country. In Germany and France, the majority of corporate loans are tied to a fixed rate. In Finland, the proportion of fixed rate loans is small.
The real-world nature of China’s official gross domestic product reporting has been dubious for years. Although China has long engaged in the practice of setting economic growth targets, it was only in 2012 that hitting a specific number began to be carefully tracked.
China was at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis. As a consequence, the value of Chinese exports plummeted by 13% year-on-year at the first quarter of 2020.
According to the Bank of Finland’s model simulations, the tariff rises already introduced will serve to slow global growth by 0.7 of a percentage point.
Negative interest rates have been an integral part of the ECB's overall monetary accommodation for just over five years now. Research indicates that the advantages of slightly negative interest rates outweigh the disadvantages.
The long-anticipated slowdown of the Chinese economy is natural for an economy that has grown rapidly for several decades.