Will debt derail Abenomics?

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/CBIZ-01-131113.html

Will debt derail Abenomics?
By Michael Pettis
Nov 13, '13

It seems to me that one of the automatic, if not always intended, consequences of Abenomics is to force up Japan's current account surplus, and in fact to force it up substantially. This will have to do at least in part with deciding how to manage the country's enormous government debt burden, which easily exceeds 200% of the country's GDP.

If I am right, this should create two concerns. First, in a world struggling with insufficient demand and excess capacity, and in which the growth strategies of too many countries implicitly involve a significant increase in exports relative to imports, a major increase in Japan's current account surplus could easily derail growth recovery elsewhere.

The US for example has to worry that policies aimed at increasing domestic demand don't simply result in rising debt as US demand bleeds out through the current account, while both China and Europe need strong external sectors to make their own difficult domestic adjustments less painful.

Second, it is not obvious that the world will be able to absorb a significant increase in the Japanese exports, and if Abenomics implicitly forces up the Japanese savings rate relative to investment (which is all that we mean when we say that economic policies force up current account surpluses), these policies can resolve themselves either in the form of high growth and soaring exports, or much lower growth and slowing imports.