The Unassuming Economist

“Property prices have been subdued, in tandem with slowing economic growth and weak business sentiment”, notes IMF’s report on Indonesia.

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“Property prices have continued to fall from their crisis peaks, in part because Russian buying has fallen”, notes the IMF’s report on Montenegro.

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“After a long period of rapid growth, house prices have stabilized since 2013. A sharp reversal could have a significant impact on consumption, even if banks’ exposures could be managed (…). However, staff analysis does not suggest a major overvaluation, as past price trends were broadly in line with borrowing cost, demographic and income developments”, according to the IMF’s new report on Belgium.

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A new IMF “paper focuses on income inequality in Asia, its drivers and policies to combat it. It finds that income inequality has risen in most of Asia, in contrast to many regions. While in the past, rapid growth in Asia has come with equitable distribution of the gains, more recently fast-growing Asian economies have been unable to replicate the “growth with equity” miracle. There is a growing consensus that high levels of inequality can hamper the pace and sustainability of growth. Read the full article…

“Given still strong credit growth and rapidly rising house prices, the RBF should adopt macroprudential measures to tame the credit and housing price momentum, including through the use of loan-to-value ratios”, says IMF report on Fiji.

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