IMF Staff Country Reports

Belgium: Selected Issues

March 12, 2015

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Belgium: Selected Issues, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2015) accessed September 18, 2024

Summary

This Selected Issues paper illustrates the recent evolution in Belgian housing prices. Belgian housing prices peaked at the end of 2013 after a persistent increase that was almost continuous for 30 years. The stabilization of prices, combined with policy changes on the fiscal and macro-prudential fronts, raises the question how housing prices are likely to evolve and how a price decline would affect the Belgian economy. The paper assesses the risk of a rapid price correction and the potential repercussions for the real economy. It also argues that an orderly and limited decline in housing prices—coupled with a marginal negative effect on the real economy—is the most plausible scenario.

Subject: Expenditure, Financial institutions, Fiscal consolidation, Fiscal policy, Housing prices, Inflation, Mortgages, Prices

Keywords: Bill containment, CR, Equilibrium price, Europe, Federal government, Fiscal consolidation, Government, Government plan, House price, Housing prices, Inflation, ISCR, Mortgages, Price decline, Wage, Wage bill

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    42

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Country Report No. 2015/071

  • Stock No:

    1BELEA2015002

  • ISBN:

    9781498317825

  • ISSN:

    1934-7685