The euro exchange rate and Germany's trade surplus

We estimate a three-region (DE-REA-RoW) structural macroeconomic model, and we provide a counterfactual on how nominal exchange rate flexibility would have affected the German trade balance (TB) by simulating the shocks of the estimated model under a counterfactual flexible exchange rate regime. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2019
Main Authors: Hohberger, Stefan, Ratto, Marco, Vogel, Lukas
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
CESifo Group Munich
Economic policy
International trade
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:We estimate a three-region (DE-REA-RoW) structural macroeconomic model, and we provide a counterfactual on how nominal exchange rate flexibility would have affected the German trade balance (TB) by simulating the shocks of the estimated model under a counterfactual flexible exchange rate regime. The actual and counterfactual TB trajectories are similar overall. Results suggest an around 2 pp lower trade surplus during 2012-15 together with a stronger real effective exchange rate in the counterfactual. The latter shows a similar upward trend in the TB, however, and the 2012-15 gap between actual and counterfactual closes at the end of the sample.