Pre-COVID debt, COVID money, post-COVID debt
There is much talk of COVID debt and there have been calls to cancel it, convert it into perpetual debt, etc. Yet there is no COVID debt, only COVID money, which has been created to finance the fiscal deficits of 2020 and 2021. This money will only become debt if the central bank reduces the size of its balance sheet in the future, which it will only do if this generates no risk. So what are the real problems? Pre-COVID debt: the public debt ratio was high at the end of 2019 (we look at the OECD as a whole and the euro zone), even stripping out the portion of the public debt held by the central bank, and this debt will have to be rolled over in the future, possibly at higher interest rates; COVID money and the resulting risk of asset price bubbles; Post-COVID debt: decisions taken today will give rise to lasting fiscal deficits from 2022 and beyond, which will also have to be debt-financed .