These routes to increased demand, through lower interest rates, provide clear mechanisms through which a fiscal adjustment can be expansionary. If the increase in demand from an improved trade position, combined with increased investment and consumption, exceeds the falloff in demand that results from a combination of tax increases and spending cuts, then the fiscal adjustment can be expansionary. Whether in practice it is expansionary depends on the relative size of these effects. Of course, lower interest rates are a key part of the story. If interest rates do not fall as a result of the adjustment, then there is.
