Is it rising credit spreads and default rates that herald a recession, or is it the recession that causes credit spreads and default rates to rise?
When we look at credit spreads and default rates among households and companies in the United States and the euro zone, we see: In the United States, rising household and corporate default rates; In the euro zone, rising credit spreads. This leads us to examine the direction of the causality. Is it rising credit spreads and default rates that herald or even trigger a recession in the future ? Or, on the contrary, is it the recession, caused by another factor, that triggers the rise in credit spreads and default rates? An observation of past developments shows that: Credit spreads are a leading indicator of growth (bad news for growth in the euro zone); While default rates result from past growth.