Spain needs technical but also political assistance to redress the hesitant and often deficient action of the current government. Even if backed by an overall majority in Parliament, the government seems unable to offer a solvent alternative.
If Mario Monti achieves his goal and sits again as the prime minister of Italy, the message sent to the rest of the periphery will be one of great uncertainty and suspicion: lack of democracy and national accountability will not spark popular support to reforms, but most probably the opposite.
Although Ireland’s economy seems to be improving, Barclays warned that fiscal adjustments hit employment figures and disposable income.
Inflation in the euro area falls by 0.1 percentage points to 2.5% year-on-year. CaixaBank analysts predict a downward slide in inflation over the coming months.
A eurozone’s press review of the coverage about the banking union project gives a crystal picture of the mess: the division is growing between Germany’s position and the rest of its currency area partners.
Concerning the total trade of member states, the largest surplus was observed in Germany, followed by the Netherlands and Ireland. The United Kingdom registered the largest deficit.
The austerity trap. That’s the price to pay for an asymmetric scheme that fails to impose any discipline on those, like Germany, equipped with comfortable margins of manoeuvre for increasing their domestic demand.
PARIS | Angela Merkel is entering an election period and wants to avoid the slightest risk, while François Hollande fears nothing more than reopening old wounds in his majority government. End of the federal Europe road?
AMSTERDAM | by Saskia Houttuin for Fair Observer | As more immediate economic concerns engulf Dutch politics, Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party is rather rapidly losing popular support.
Don’t expect a single penny to be spent on banking restructuring processes for a long time to come, a nasty prospect for neighbours anxiously awaiting the common supervision agreement to clean up their messy financial industry.