Tag: recession

After five years of economic crisis and the return of a recession in 2012, unemployment is hitting peaks not seen for almost 20 years, according to a report by the European Commission published yesterday (8 January), which showed growing disparity between North and South Europe.

Serbia’s three-week-old government is already entangled in the country’s difficult economic situation, with early moves such as diminishing the independence of the country's National Bank has raising concern in international circles, EurActiv Serbia reports.

The eurozone, China and Britain loosened monetary policy in the space of less than an hour yesterday (5 July), signalling a growing level of alarm about the world economy, although suggestions of coordinated action were played down.

The achievement of only a third of the vote by Greece's traditional conservative and socialist ruling parties marks the end of the old political order, an electoral revolution which could spread to other European countries if the crisis continues, argues Yiannis Roubatis.

A new study by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) maps out the effects of the economic crisis on unemployment and inequality. It blames EU leaders, notably the European Commission’s push for austerity in early 2011 and the European Central Bank’s previously tight monetary policy, for the failure to spur a recovery.

The eurozone is heading towards a “mild recession”, according to updated European Commission forecasts, and will contract by 0.3% in 2012.

The new treaty on fiscal discipline cannot alone address the euro crisis and while there has been renewed talk of growth by EU leaders, current plans have proven "pitifully weak," says Carole Ulmer.

Global leaders and businessmen urged Europe yesterday (16 January) to take fresh steps to resolve its deepening debt crisis, with a top executive of the IMF warning the continent will see a "downward spiral of collapsing confidence" if no further action is taken.

The euro's rise as an international exchange and reserve currency is being slowed by the incoherence of European monetary and fiscal policy, said economist Barry Eichengreen in an interview with EurActiv.

Political leaders failed to halt a global stock market rout that gathered steam yesterday (8 August) as investors lost confidence that Europe and the United States can rein in their budgets quickly and fear spread of a double-dip recession.

The eurozone crisis has transformed the debate on 'Social Europe' and threatens to undermine the pro-Europe sentiments of the left, writes Olaf Cramme, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. He asks how the supporters of a 'Social Europe' could use the crisis in their favour.

Europe's tentative economic recovery is proving "slower and weaker" that had been hoped, according to Emmanouil Schizas, a senior advisor to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), who told EurActiv Germany that earlier optimism was fuelled by unsustainable government support.

The economic downturn is likely to cost as many as 25 million people their jobs by the end of 2010 as the unemployment rate nears a record 10% in the OECD group of countries, according to a report released on Wednesday (16 September).

The euro zone is emerging from recession, the European Commission said yesterday (14 September), although it kept a gloomy overall forecast for 2009 as data showed job losses across the region still rising and sapping growth.

Europe's economy will not start recovering until the second half of next year, the European Commission said yesterday (4 May), cutting forecasts made little more than three months ago in a sign of the depth of the recession.

While Germany successfully managed its dual presidency of the European Union and G8 in 2007, a year later the country stands accused of making weak and contradictory commitments on many issues, particularly foreign and social policies, write Claire Demesmay and Hans Stark in a March paper for the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

A Commission plan to spend five billion euro on clean energy and broadband Internet infrastructure projects to help kick-start the economy edged closer to approval last week after demands from key member states were taken onboard, EurActiv has learned. But there is still doubt as to where the money will come from.

The European Commission yesterday (2 February) "strongly backed" UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in condemning a wave of strikes in Britain over the use of foreign workers, staged across a dozen oil refineries, gas terminals and power stations.

The European Commission on Wednesday (26 November) suggested that EU countries should spend billions of euro to kick-start their economies, saying it would tolerate higher budget deficits under strict conditions and for a limited period of time.

For the second quarter in a row, the euro zone recorded a 0.2% decline in its GDP, officially moving the 15-member group into a recession, according to Eurostat, which on the other hand signalled a continuing positive trend of downward inflation for October.

Despite the parallels often drawn between the Great Depression and the current financial crisis, today's WTO commitments guarantee that protectionist reactions are very unlikely to reach the scale that caused the collapse of international trade in the 1930s, argues Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform (CER).

France's Prime Minister François Fillon called yesterday (18 August) for a "coordinated response" by EU governments to the major global economic slowdown, saying his country would propose measures later in September.

Tampering with exchange rates to stem the rise of the euro against the dollar would be wrong, according to a March commentary from EuroIntelligence, which argues that leaving the euro/dollar exchange rate alone would be more beneficial to both currencies.

Speaking yesterday in Parliament, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that Europe was much better positioned than the US to weather any forthcoming economic slowdown and therefore should not overreact.