Inflation has started to increase, and the return of inflation comes at a time in which economies begin to recover from pandemic-induced and lockdown-induced recessions. This raises questions about how much and how long inflation will go up as well as about whether central banks have to step-up...

We provide a simple exercise for the real growth rate of GDP in 2020 in Portugal, with three alternative scenarios: pessimistic, baseline, and optimistic, with the range for real growth between -5.8% and -3.9%. Of particular relevance is private consumption and investment, with households...

This paper presents a new dataset on the dynamics of non-performing loans (NPLs) during 88 banking crises since 1990. The data show similarities across crises during NPL build-ups but less so during NPL resolutions. We find a close relationship between NPL problems-elevated and unresolved...

We study the effects of credit over the business cycle, distinguishing between expansions and contractions. We find that there is a growth and risk trade-off in the pace of credit growth over the business cycle. While rapid credit growth tends to be followed by deeper recessions, we also find...

We present real time survey evidence from the UK, US and Germany showing that the labor market impacts of COVID-19 differ considerably across countries. Employees in Germany, which has a well-established short-time work scheme, are substantially less likely to be affected by the crisis. Within...