Tag: economic forecasts

Public affairs professionals are optimistic that the worst of the recession is over, with the majority feeling that the recovery in Europe has already begun, revealed a new survey presented last week in Brussels. 

Europe's fiscal and monetary stimulus plans have paid off, according to EU employers' association BusinessEurope, which forecasts a stabilisation in economic activity but warns that conditions for sustained growth are still not within reach.

Amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, resurgent violence and war in the Middle East, a row between Russia and the Ukraine over gas supplies which left Europe freezing, and skyrocketing expectations for the first Afro-American US President, EurActiv asked European Commission director generals to spell out their hopes for 2009.

Domestic factors are more likely to inhibit economic growth in the EU's new member states than external ones, argue a group of scholars from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies in a February 2008 paper.

Despite the US real estate crisis and declining confidence in financial markets, eurozone GDP is expected to register growth of 2.6% in 2007 thanks to an increase in private consumption, according to forecasts from the Ifo Institute for Economic Research.

While the European economy is entering a boom phase, social reality lags behind, a number of recently published reports suggest.

2007 is looking brighter for the vast majority of European businesses, whose confidence has been boosted by this year’s stronger-than-expected economic growth. However, the benefits are not being felt universally.

For the first time in six years the eurozone has enjoyed several consecutive quarters of healthy economic growth, but this upturn could end as badly as in 2001 unless policymakers respond adequately, warn research institutes.

Economic growth has increased this year to 2.7% in the European Union and 2.5% in the eurozone. The rise is driven mainly by domestic demand, particularly investment. 

The Commission released encouraging economic forecasts for the 13 EU membership candidates on 13 November, predicting 2.9 per cent growth for this year and over 4 per cent growth in 2003 and 2004.

Commission forecasts robust growth in the ten Central and Eastern European candidate countries in 2001 and 2002