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标题：Focus: Fiscal policy stance during past periods of expansion
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作者：Maria Grazia Attinasi ; Aless:ra Anna Palazzo ; Beatrice Pierluigi 等
期刊名称：Euro Area Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Statistics
印刷版ISSN：1830-3420
电子版ISSN：1830-3439
出版年度：2018
出版社：European Central Bank
摘要：Economic activity in the euro area and in most of its member countries hasrecovered to pre-crisis levels and is currently expanding. Over the past fouryears the gradual move towards a broad-based and self-sustained expansion hasbeen accompanied by a broadly neutral fiscal stance for the euro area aggregate. Inother words, discretionary policies neither provided a significant impulse to theeconomy, nor did they act as a drag on growth for the euro area as a whole. As theexpansion is becoming more solid and mature, a more countercyclical stance maybecome appropriate for the euro area. Arguments in favour of a countercyclical fiscalpolicy put forward in the literature30 essentially hinge on the need to improve fiscalpositions during good economic times and to use the resulting fiscal space tosupport the economy during recessions, without hampering debt sustainability. In theeuro area, the important role that automatic stabilisers play in ensuringcounter-cyclicality requires countries to conduct their policies in line with theircommitments under the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). This will allow countries torebuild fiscal buffers, reduce debt ratios and keep fiscal policies on a sustainablepath.