Foreign Currency Debt, Financial Crises and Economic Growth: A Long Run View

Michael Bordo, Christopher Meissner and David Stuckler

No 15534, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Foreign currency debt is widely believed to increase risks of financial crisis, especially after being implicated as a cause of the East Asian crisis in the late 1990s. In this paper, we study the effects of foreign currency debt on currency and debt crises and its indirect short and long run effects on output between 1880-1913 and 1973-2003 for 45 countries. Greater ratios of foreign currency debt to total debt are associated with increased risks of currency and debt crises, although the strength of the association depends crucially on the size of a country's reserve base and its policy credibility. We find that financial crises, driven by exposure to foreign currency, resulted in significant permanent output losses. We evaluate our findings by looking at the risk posed by high levels of foreign currency liabilities in eastern Europe in late 2008.

JEL-codes: F34 F36 F43 N10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba and nep-fdg
Note: IFM ME
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Published as Bordo, Michael D. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Stuckler, David, 2010. "Foreign currency debt, financial crises and economic growth: A long-run view," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 642-665, June.

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Journal Article: Foreign currency debt, financial crises and economic growth: A long-run view (2010)
Working Paper: Foreign Currency Debt, Financial Crises and Economic Growth: A Long Run View (2009)
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