The key difference between cyclical and structural deficits
We will illustrate our analysis with the cases of the euro zone and France. In 2020 and 2021, the ECB monetises almost all fiscal deficits. The part of these fiscal deficits that is a cyclical deficit (run up only in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID crisis) is therefore counterbalanced by money, is not giving rise to additional debt that investors must hold, and cannot drive up long-term interest rates or create a fiscal solvency problem. But part of these fiscal deficits is a structural deficit, with either additional public spending or tax cuts that will continue after 2021 (in 2022 and beyond). If the ECB no longer monetises fiscal deficits from 2022 onwards, these structural fiscal deficits will then, from that time, give rise to real public debt, which investors will have to accept to hold. Economic policies that give rise to a purely cyclical fiscal deficit will therefore now have to be analysed very differently from those that will give rise to a permanent, structural fiscal deficit .