IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nwe/eajour/y2025i4p1200-1218.html

Еconomic Policy Under Global Flight to Safe Assets and Effective Lower Bound: the Bulgarian Prospects

Author

Listed:
  • Ivan Todorov

    (University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria)

Abstract

The study is motivated by the (global) trend of excess savings and the restrictive response to investment in productive capital despite abundant financing. While there is heterogeneity among countries, in Bulgaria we can observe both declining market interest rates (rm) and long-standing investment stagnation in terms of gross capital formation as a share of GDP. This stylized fact can be described and explained through the NeoWicksellian concept of the natural interest rate (r*), with potentially secular low values of r* posing serious challenges to further stimulating interest-sensitive aggregate expenditures. In contrast to other studies, a trend towards a decrease in the natural interest rate is observed for Bulgaria, which provides a more accurate explanation for the structural factors, including underutilized fiscal space (with r*

Suggested Citation

  • Ivan Todorov, 2025. "Еconomic Policy Under Global Flight to Safe Assets and Effective Lower Bound: the Bulgarian Prospects," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 4, pages 1200-1218, Desember.
    • Handle: RePEc:nwe:eajour:y:2025:i:4:p:1200-1218
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.unwe.bg/doi/eajournal/2025.4/EA.2025.4.11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dilian Vassilev, 2020. "Secular stagnation – the origin of the concept, a review of the scientific literature and the nature of the academic debate," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 137-158.
    2. Ricardo J Caballero & Emmanuel Farhi & Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, 2021. "Global Imbalances and Policy Wars at the Zero Lower Bound," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(6), pages 2570-2621.
    3. Rungcharoenkitkul, Phurichai & Winkler, Fabian, 2026. "The natural rate of interest through a hall of mirrors," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    4. Claudio Borio, 2017. "Secular stagnation or financial cycle drag?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 87-98, April.
    5. Gianluca Benigno & Boris Hofmann & Galo Nuño Barrau & Damiano Sandri, 2024. "Quo vadis, r*? The natural rate of interest after the pandemic," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    6. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    7. Dilian Vassilev, 2021. "A Model of Natural Interest Rate: The Case of Bulgaria," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 7, pages 46-72.
    8. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Neil R. Mehrotra & Jacob A. Robbins, 2019. "A Model of Secular Stagnation: Theory and Quantitative Evaluation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-48, January.
    9. Viktors Ajevskis, 2020. "The natural rate of interest: information derived from a shadow rate model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(47), pages 5129-5138, October.
    10. Bohn, Henning, 2007. "Are stationarity and cointegration restrictions really necessary for the intertemporal budget constraint?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 1837-1847, October.
    11. Thomas Laubach & John C. Williams, 2003. "Measuring the Natural Rate of Interest," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 1063-1070, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Del Negro, Marco & Giannone, Domenico & Giannoni, Marc P. & Tambalotti, Andrea, 2019. "Global trends in interest rates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 248-262.
    2. Nickel, Christiane & Kilponen, Juha & Moral-Benito, Enrique & Koester, Gerrit & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Enders, Almira & Holton, Sarah & Landau, Bettina & Venditti, Fabrizio & Bobeica, Elena & Brand, Cla, 2025. "A strategic view on the economic and inflation environment in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 371, European Central Bank.
    3. Zhang, Jing & Lin, Xiaole & An, Qiguang, 2026. "Dynamic response of the natural interest rate to extreme climate," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Fiedler, Salomon & Gern, Klaus-Jürgen & Jannsen, Nils & Wolters, Maik H., 2019. "Growth prospects, the natural interest rate, and monetary policy," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 13, pages 1-34.
    5. Yudai Hatayama & Yuto Iwasaki & Kyoko Nakagami & Tatsuyoshi Okimoto, 2024. "Globalization and Its Growing Impact on the Natural Rates of Interest in Developed Economies," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 24-E-13, Bank of Japan.
    6. Agnello, Luca & Castro, Vítor & Sousa, Ricardo M., 2022. "On the international co-movement of natural interest rates," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    7. Christian Schoder, 2014. "The fundamentals of sovereign debt sustainability: evidence from 15 OECD countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(2), pages 247-271, May.
    8. Maciej Stefański, 2023. "Natural Rate of Interest in a Small Open Economy with Application to CEE Countries," KAE Working Papers 2023-093, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    9. Neri, Stefano & Gerali, Andrea, 2019. "Natural rates across the Atlantic," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Devi Prasad DASH & Debi Prasad BAL & Manoranjan SAHOO, 2016. "Nexus between defense expenditure and economic growth in BRIC economies: An empirical investigation," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(606), S), pages 89-102, Spring.
    11. Asmaa Ezzat & Manal Emira, 2025. "Do institutions matter in the fiscal reaction function? The case of Egypt," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Lucio Gobbi & Ronny Mazzocchi & Roberto Tamborini, 2022. "Monetary policy, rational confidence, and Neo‐Fisherian depressions," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 1179-1199, November.
    13. Michele Catalano & Emilia Pezzolla, 2022. "Global natural projections," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 949-990, November.
    14. Brand, Claus & Goy, Gavin W & Lemke, Wolfgang, 2020. "Natural rate chimera and bond pricing reality," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224546, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Fu, Buben & Wang, Bin, 2024. "Demographic change and natural interest rate of China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    16. Benjamin K. Johannsen & Elmar Mertens, 2021. "A Time‐Series Model of Interest Rates with the Effective Lower Bound," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(5), pages 1005-1046, August.
    17. Wysocki, Maciej & Wojcik, Cezary & Freytag, Andreas, 2024. "Populists and fiscal policy: The case of Poland," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. Manoranjan SAHOO & M Suresh BABU & Umakant DASH, 2016. "Current account sustainability in SAARC economies: Evidence from combined cointegration approach," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(4(609), W), pages 281-298, Winter.
    19. Sudo, Nao & Takizuka, Yasutaka, 2020. "Population Aging And The Real Interest Rate In The Last And Next 50 Years: A Tale Told By An Overlapping Generations Model," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(8), pages 2060-2103, December.
    20. Manoranjan SAHOO & M Suresh BABU & Umakant DASH, 2016. "Current account sustainability in SAARC economies: Evidence from combined cointegration approach," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(4(609), W), pages 281-298, Winter.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • E63 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nwe:eajour:y:2025:i:4:p:1200-1218. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Vanya Lazarova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/unweebg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.