Open AccessThe ADB COVID-19 Policy Database: A Guide to Understanding Changes in Sectoral Balances and Private Sector Financial Positions in 2020
Author(s) -
Jesús Felipe,
Scott T. Fullwiler,
Al-Habbyel Yusoph
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
asian development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.487
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1996-7241
pISSN - 0116-1105
DOI - 10.1142/s0116110521500062
Subject(s) - private sector , balance sheet , government (linguistics) , financial sector , covid-19 , balance (ability) , finance , business , government sector , economics , rest (music) , fiscal year , database , financial system , economic growth , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , cardiology , disease , pathology , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , physical medicine and rehabilitation
The Asian Development Bank COVID-19 Policy Database recently added an entry on sector financial balances (SFBs). This addition to the policy database provides information for 35 economies on the financial positions of the private sector, government sector, and the rest of the world, which by construction add up to 0. Data used to calculate SFBs are obtained directly from flow-of-funds accounts. When this source is not available, we obtain data from the national accounts. We use SFBs to understand why the private sector balance moved into a large surplus in 2020. We argue that this surplus is a mirror image of the fiscal deficit.