OP-ED By Julia Pastor | The term PIIGS was coined in the 90s to speak about troubled southern countries on the eve of their entry into euro zone. During the current crisis, the word has been recurrently used to point bailed-out economies. And it kind of hurts. No international institution has ever adopted the ‘P word’. Banks such as Barclays even banned their analysts to use it.
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | The appreciation of the euro, in a deflationary context as the current one, may be the last push so as to cross the ECB’s red line and reach a Japanese style deflation. Macroeconomic variables don’t encourage optimism, especially because inflation in the euro zone is getting closer and closer to the ECB’s zero red line.
MADRID|Rafael Poch at La Vanguardia via Presseurop|At the start of her new mandate, Angela Merkel is putting the emphasis on Europe. And, as always, Europeans are expecting a lot from her. Will she go down in history as one of the great chancellors? It all depends on what happens in Europe.
MADRID | José Fernández Albertos at El Diario via Presseurop | European elections are transnational, but voting is determined by campaigns on local issues, and the political consequences of the election results are essentially local. This paradox is a major obstacle for European integration.
LONDON | By Nigel Morris at The Independent via Presseurop | A generation gap has opened up among Britons, with 41 per cent of 18-24 year olds saying they are firmly in favour of the UK’s EU membership or leaning towards support, compared to 32 per cent who are against, according to a new poll published in The Independent.
LONDON | By Barclays analysts | We expect Europe to experience a long period of moderate economic growth, coupled with very low inflation: for the EU28, GDP should grow 1.5% in 2014 and accelerate to 1.7% in 2015, while inflation should bottom at 1.2% in 2014 before edging up slightly, to 1.4%, in 2015.
SAO PAOLO | By Marcus Nunes | ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeuret told a journalist club on Monday night that the European Central Bank was ready to act, but that the euro zone was not edging towards a dangerous fall in prices.
LONDON | By Barclays analysts | Under our macroeconomic scenario of a mild and uneven recovery combined with subdued inflation, we do not expect the ECB to cut rates further in the coming months despite recent speculation (Bloomberg news) that it was considering a negative deposit rate.
COPENHAGUE | By Kim Faber, Tanja Parker Astrup and Jakob Sheikh at Politiken via Presseurop | With 29.5 per cent of the vote, the Social Democrats led by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt avoided a long-predicted catastrophe in Danish local elections on November 19, reports Politiken.
