ATHENS | By Jens Bastian via MacroPolis | Last week saw Greek politicians clock up air miles to European destinations. Government representatives flew to Paris in order to meet a troika delegation that has repeatedly delayed its return to Athens.
By Peter Lundgreen via Caixin | Last week, China’s biggest export destination, the European Union established a new growth package. The desired size of a new investment fund is 315 billion euros, and it will be called the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). During a period of three years, new investments financed by the fund are expected to lift annual GDP growth in the EU by 0.7 percentage points. The calculations from the EU show that the package can create between 1 million and 1.3 million new jobs.
MADRID | By Álex García.
BRUSSELS | By Alexandre Mato | Last year, the EU spent €275 billion on Research & Development, nearly 2% of its GDP. This is undoubtedly a huge amount of money, but not enough to compete with the United States, South Korea or Japan. Furthermore, a brief glance at the main tech and computer companies shows that the European horizon looks somewhat bleak.
BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | The Eurozone cannot afford another recession, hence the international and European institutional pressure to force Germany to speed up its economic growth. However, the German economy has grown by only 0.1% in 3Q and, according to the experts, it seems unlikely that it will accelerate in the coming quarters.
ATHENS | By Jens Bastian via MacroPolis | According to its Wikipedia article, Waiting for Godot by Irish writer Samuel Beckett is an absurdist play, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for the arrival of someone named Godot. The current situation in Athens has remarkable similarities with this classic piece of European literature.
MADRID | The Corner | Mario Draghi: “Some form of cross-country risk-sharing is essential to help reduce adjustment costs for those countries and prevent recessions from leaving deep and permanent scars.”/ Jens Weidmann: “Fiscal policy should support the central bank with solid state finances, so that monetary policy can concentrate on its actual mandate, and sustainably secure the value of money.”
MADRID | The Corner | A few weeks ago, Italy’s PM aide said the country had an “atomic bomb” to revive the economy, meaning a massive tax cut primarily on low to middle range wages that would help to boost domestic demand. Indeed, Rome has seen better days: GDP is expected to shrink 0.4% this year, according to the latest European Commission forecasts, far from the 0.8% growth predicted by Rome just after Mr Renzi took office in February. Its industrial sector, a traditional backbone of the Italian economy, registered a 25pp output gap to the eurozone industry since 1999. Yet the current combination of loose monetary policy, lesser fiscal drag or even outright fiscal stimulus, improving credit conditions and a weaker exchange rate leave the country far from being the sick man of Europe, as some have said.
MADRID | By Sean Duffy | The latest economic outlook from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts a bleak outlook for Europe unless action is taken. The Corner asked Piritta Sorsa, Head of EU and Eurozone surveillance at the OECD about the increased sense of urgency, sovereign bond proposals and the necessity for consensus among Eurozone members.
MADRID | By Sean Duffy | The latest OECD report is increasingly urgent in tone, with Europe the centre of attention. With continued wrangling over in the EU about how best to proceed, the Paris based think-thank has had its say on the ECB’s monetary policy too.