Financial repression

Financial repression comprises "policies that result in savers earning returns below the rate of inflation" to allow banks to "provide cheap loans to companies and governments, reducing the burden of repayments." It can be particularly effective at liquidating government debt denominated in domestic currency. It can also lead to large expansions in debt "to levels evoking comparisons with the excesses that generated Japan’s lost decade and the 1997 Asian financial crisis."

The term was introduced in 1973 by Stanford economists Edward S. Shaw and Ronald I. McKinnon to "disparage growth-inhibiting policies in emerging markets."