MNI BRIEF: Reform Or Face Decade of Rising Debt, Study Warns

Today's low interest rates will not be enough to stabilise Belgian government debt over the next 10 years, a paper published in the National Bank of Belgium's Economic Review argues, with "considerable consolidation efforts" in the form of fiscal and structural reform required to bring it back onto a downwards path.

Large scale bond buying has made the links between monetary and fiscal policy more pronounced, but the cancellation of government debts on central bank balance sheets would be both "potentially risky and generally unnecessary [...]," the study's authors conclude.

"A clear commitment by governments to debt sustainability avoids the central bank being pressured to take debt concerns into account when setting monetary policy," the authors added.