Targetsalden: Viel mehr als nur ein Haftungsrisiko

The Target2 balances of the ESCB have become a focus of scholarly discussion. Triggered by a loss of international competitiveness and subsequent current account deficits in the EMU’s periphery states, they now constitute a default risk for the core states. But there is more to it: balance of payment disequilibria in a currency union are supposed to trigger money supply flows from surplus countries to deficit countries. Since they form the basis for readjustments in relative prices and competitiveness, they must not be neutralised by monetary policy. The ECB’s Target2 balances create precisely this neutralisation and thus undermine the self-adjusting mechanism of the EMU.