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The aim of this essay is to point out the challenges and opportunities of government export credits and insurance in Europe. The Covid-19 pandemic confronted the entire world with new challenges. This also applied to the export financing and insurance market. Furthermore, there are also challenges that play a major role for ECAs regardless of the pandemic. However, the risks are also offset by opportunities that may enable European export credit agencies to prevail against international competition.
The focus of this essay is on the export credit agencies from Finland (Finnvera), Sweden (EKN) and Portugal (COSEC). As part of the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the three ECAs share many fundamental similarities but in some points they may also distinguish from each other.
Supporting the COVID-19 response in Asia and the Pacific—The role of the Asian Development Bank.
(2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all countries of the Asia Pacific region over the last few months with far reaching economic, health and social consequences. To counter the impact, governments have accelerated their health spending and announced large macroeconomic stabilization and stimulus policy packages. As with past disasters and crises in the region, the Asian Development Bank has reacted with a number of targeted support interventions since the very early stages of the outbreak. In mid- April 2020, the Bank then put forward a comprehensive COVID-19 Response Package totalling $20 billion to support its member countries which rests on four pillars.
The last few months have proven that multilateral development banks like the Asian Development Bank have the ability to respond quickly and to mobilize significant resources for a global emergency like COVID-19. Whilst this financial supported is urgently needed at this point, attention will need to be paid on how debt sustainability for low- and middle-income countries can be ensured in the coming years. Given the unprecedented scale of and uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, it may offer a window of opportunity to redesign the way developmental finance is coordinated and the way it is delivered. This also includes a chance to “build back better” and to focus on a sustainable, resilient and green recovery.
If the current situation could be described in one word, it would be ‘uncertainty’. In times of global crisis, it is important to support the economy to keep businesses alive. Therefore, this paper shows the Finnish government measures and how exporters can benefit from them. Looking in particular at the maritime sector, the research pointed out that there were not that many specific measures for exporters and shipbuilders. This essay detected that the provided measures are suitable for the needs of the affected companies and are an effective instrument by the government to stabilise the industry. This is proved by the number of companies taking advantage of these loans, grants and guarantees. Due to the already mentioned uncertainty, it remains unclear how measures have to be adjusted in the future.
Africa was the last region to witness significant spread of the COVID-19. Nonetheless, it was expected that the continent would be hardest hit due to the fragility of its health and social infrastructure as well as the vulnerability of its economies. While the rates of infection and death were initially relatively low and contained economically, the continent was hard hit early on. Cuts in credit and trade services by international banks, along with a decline in export earnings, tourism receipts, and inward remittances, have severely constrained the ability of African countries to finance imports of essential goods and to service maturing debt obligations.
However, Africa has over time created mechanisms and institutions to help cushion its economies from the adverse consequences of global shocks. Among these institutions is Afreximbank, which emerged out of the debt crisis of the 1980s. This paper presents an overview of the Bank’s support to African countries in dealing with two major derivatives of the COVID-19 pandemic: the trade finance challenges resulting from cuts in international financial flows to the continent, and the health consequences of the pandemic.
This seminar paper examines government measures to support export-oriented companies in Belgium. After a short overview of the Belgian economy and the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the paper introduces the available government measures for exporters. In particular, the role of Credendo as a Belgian export-credit insurance company will be discussed, and its measures will be examined in more detail. In addition, federal measures of the Belgian government will be identified, and a summary of the most important regional measures will be provided. The entirety of government measures available to export-oriented companies will be reviewed and options for the future activities of export-oriented companies will be pointed out.
The COVID-19 pandemic has the global economy under control. This paper deals with the economic consequences in Germany and shows the measures taken by the German government to support especially small and medium-sized export companies. The structure of the German economy and foreign trade promotion are explained as a basis. After considering the government's support measures, an evaluation of country comparisons shows that there is still potential for further measures, especially in direct lending and debt moratorium. The analysis is based on quantitative data from surveys and qualitative results from interviews with relevant ministries and market participants as well as recent publications.
The coronavirus affects the strongly export-oriented Swiss economy in a situation where political and economic developments are already making the cross-border exchange of goods and services difficult. For this reason, the question arises of how Switzerland can maintain or strengthen its position in global competition in the export business during an unprecedented period of crisis such as the current one.
In order to find an answer to this question, this paper critically examines the existing government support measures for Swiss exporters in times of COVID-19. The fact that Switzerland has so far not taken any specific support measures for exporters raises the actual research question of whether there is a specific necessity and demand for a special export promotion. To answer this research question, various expert opinions are compared and overall conclusions are drawn. By rapidly introducing and adapting the already existing instruments – liquidity assistance and an expansion of short-time work benefits – the federal government was able to ensure the survival of many companies. According to the authors of this paper, this focus of government support in times of crisis is just right for a small national economy in the short term and therefore preferable to a specific support of exporters. Nevertheless, given the high relative importance of foreign trade for Switzerland’s overall economic performance, there can be no recovery of national economy without a recovery of foreign trade.
This paper gives an overview of the impact that the corona pandemic has on the export industry in Canada and analyzes the different Canadian government measures for exporters. In addition, the measures are subsequently evaluated in order to identify if the support measures can help Canadian exporters to overcome the crisis. The basis of this paper are semi-structured expert interviews with experts from the financial sector, scientific literature and studies. The results have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has a major impact on Canada’s export economy and it’s GDP. Trade is only possible to a limited extent, as many borders are closed. The Canadian government reacted with an economic response plan to support Canadian individuals and businesses. This paper depicts and assesses the most eligible measures for export companies.
The aim of this essay is to analyse and evaluate the Italian government measures for exporters in response to COVID-19. The unexpected, rapid and hardly predictable consequences of the pandemic paralyzed the entire globe. For a long time, Italy was the epicentre of the virus, which caused severe damage in the Italian export economy dropping temporarily more than 40%. The Italian government reacted exemplary fast and took multiple countermeasures of high extent especially through the Italian export credit agency SACE. On the one hand, the internationally compared broad structure of SACE was a huge advantage, which allowed to release quickly numerous measures. On the other hand, there is room for improvement regarding the accessibility of measure-related information, which has been partially only available in Italian. Furthermore, there is a remarkable risk resulting from the combination of the high monetary effort to enable the numerous measures, the difficult financial situation of the Italian government and the unpredictability of the COVID-19 consequences.