Equilibrium Credit: The Reference Point for Macroprudential Supervisors

Equilibrium credit is an important concept as it helps identify excessive credit provision. This paper proposes a two-stage approach to determine equilibrium credit. The two stages allow us to study changes in the demand for credit due to varying levels of economic, financial and institutional development of a country. Using a panel of high- and middle-income countries over the period 1980-2010, we provide empirical evidence that the credit-to-GDP ratio is inappropriate to measure equilibrium credit. The reason for this is that such an approach ignores heterogeneity in the parameters that determine equilibrium credit across countries due to different stages of economic development. The main drivers of this heterogeneity are financial depth, access to financial services, use of capital markets, efficiency and funding of domestic banks, central bank independence, the degree of supervisory integration, and experience of a financial crisis. Also, countries in Europe and Central Asia show a slower adjustment of credit to its long-run equilibrium compared to other regions of the world.