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Over the past three years the European Central Bank, guided by its President Mario Draghi, has been folowing a super relaxed monetary policy. It has been aiming at reviving uncertain economic growth and dying inflation, by handing out to banks, and through them to the economy, hundreds of billions of euro and at the same […]
More than one economic pundit felt relieved learning that Eurostat, the EU statistical service last Friday estimated the September CPI inflation in Eurozone at 0.4%, the highest level in two years. Understandably, they think that the stagnating and almost deflationary euro area is leaving behind its grim past, aided by ECB’s liquidity injections of €80 […]
Last Tuesday Eurostat, the EU statistical service release its latest estimates about the April unemployment rate and May inflation in Eurozone, which unfortunately didn’t diverge markedly from the gloomy predictions of analysts. This week however, the same source published a very interesting survey about the labor market situation in EU. It’s a special report about […]
It has become commonplace to state that the European economy still doesn’t fare well after six years of recession or practical stagnation. For good reasons however in the past few days the horizon looked particularly darkened. Negative statistical evidence and meandering statements by key people are indicative of that. Inflation or rather disinflation statistics, persistently […]
Last Thursday morning this newspaper concluded that the “only EU institution with true European motives and vision remains the European Central Bank of Mario Draghi”. Just some hours later in that Thursday afternoon the European Sting was confirmed one hundred percent by Mario Draghi, the President of ECB, who said that “We have a mandate […]
It’s a tautological statement to say that the euro area is an economy which barely moves ahead, towards producing more jobs and incomes for the tens of millions of the unemployed and materially deprived. However, it seems that it’s worse than that. Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, said it plainly in […]
The Eurozone economy doesn’t seem able to gain a sustainable growth path, despite the hundreds of billions that, lately, European Central Bank has injected into the financial system. Analysts say, though, that ECB’s intervention came too late. There is more bad news for the real economy coming from the prices front. Last week, Eurostat, the […]
What happens in China is more important for the European economy than a meagre fall of unemployment in the Eurozone. Last Tuesday, China said its February exports dived by a record 25.4%, fuelling new fears for a bigger slowdown in the world economy. At the same time, a Press release by Eurostat, the EU statistical […]
Last Monday Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, released a flash estimate for euro area annual inflation revealing a -0,2% inflation rate for February. The latter has worried the European Central Bank’s (ECB) officials and especially its president Mario Draghi. ECB’s Governing Council meeting which is taking place next week will have to reconsider […]
The European Central Bank announced last week that under its extraordinary Asset Purchase Program (APP), it has injected €712.3 billion into the euro area financial system until January this year. Out of that, €544.2bn are Eurozone government and public entities bonds, bought under the Public Sector Purchase Program (PSPP). This last plan was decided in […]
On Thursday 22 October Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank delighted the world capital markets with his comment about the “factors that are currently slowing the return of inflation to levels below, but close to, 2% in the medium term” He added that “In this context, the degree of monetary policy accommodation […]
Mario Draghi’s statement of last Thursday from Malta that the European Central Bank’s “monetary policy accommodation will need to be re-examined at our December monetary policy meeting”, offered a strong support to all major capital markets, with stocks gaining a lot of ground and the euro receding slightly. Understandably, a generous increase of ECB’s monthly […]
This newspaper has been following very closely the Eurostat statistics, including inflation, which paint an accurate picture of Eurozone’s economic condition. Then, not without good reason, during the last few months or even years the European Sting didn’t share the reserved optimism of Brussels about euro area’s prospects and unfortunately Eurostat confirmed this prediction once […]
Last Monday this newspaper questioned the ability of Eurozone’s economy to continue growing even at the negligible rate of three decimal points of a percentage unit, as Eurostat found it for the second quarter of this year. It also pointed out that the danger of recession is increasing and that the risk of deflation (negative […]
According to the latest statistics published in August by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, the euro area economy grew by a meager 0.3% during the second quarter of this year. Despite the fact that the mere three decimal points of more gross product typically illustrate a positive development for the Eurozone economy, there are other […]
Last week Eurostat, the EU statistical service, confirmed that Eurozone inflation was stuck at zero percent in April, remaining in the region of deflation. No need to mention what a too low or zero or negative inflation means for a stagnating or even receding economy. Add to that the perilous position of Greece in and […]
The Eurozone economy has been taking two steps forward and one step backward over the past few months. The minimal increase of the GDP growth rate to 0.4% during the first quarter of this year and the equally small increase of people in employment was accompanied by a fall of industrial production and a decrease […]
Tomorrow Tuesday, 5th April, the European Commission will present its ‘Spring European Economic Forecast’ including assessments and predictions about GDP, inflation, employment and government finance for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Good providence made sure that last Thursday Eurostat released its flash estimate of April inflation standing at the edge of zero percent, up by an […]
The European Central Bank as from this March will start pumping into the Eurozone economy extra liquidity of €60 billion a month of freshly printed money. The details of this extraordinary policy measure will be revealed tomorrow Thursday by Mario Draghi the President of ECB, in his regular Press conference after the Governing Council meeting […]
This week more indications emerged pointing to the possibility that the European Central Bank is to announce a government bond purchases programme sooner than expected. Negative inflation of -0.2% (deflation) in Eurozone during December (announced yesterday by Eurostat), brings this prospect much nearer. The latest information related to the government bond purchases by the ECB […]
The latest Eurostat data on employment and industrial production for the Eurozone economy point invariably to stagnation, if not recession, while the long-term tendency of household consumption, as a percentage of GDP, appears falling. In short all the key growth indicators of the economy are quite disappointing, to say the least. The economic problems of […]
A new Eurostat wave of data statistically confirmed that Eurozone is utterly moored in economic stagnation, with disturbing signs that this might even turn to recession. Most significantly, last week the EU statistical service issued an estimate that the euro area GDP idled with a zero growth rate during the second quarter. The same source […]
Last Monday, Eurostat, the EU statistical service issued data on June industrial price developments (0.1% month to month), actually showing stagnation in relation to May. It is more alarming to observe though that all along the first five months of 2014, from January to May on a month to month basis, industrial prices had been […]
With inflation in Eurozone falling last month to crisis level nadir and a new business investments retreat, it is easily understandable why unemployment is still exploding at double-digit highs. As a matter of fact, at the end of last month Eurostat, the EU statistical service published its estimates for the above mentioned crucial variables, which […]
On the 5th of June, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided not to fully deploy all the tools of Quantitative Easing (QE) programme, which showed that the ECB is not yet ready to risk everything in order to deal with low growth and inflation rates. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) […]
There are rare times in the economic chronicle, and here they are now, when the merry going economies like Austria and Luxembourg have decent inflation rates around 1.5%, while the unlucky and miserable ones like Greece, Bulgaria and Portugal are being haunted by negative inflation records of up to -2.1%. Let’s get the full and […]
One of the major issues that the European Central Bank (ECB) struggles to solve is low inflation. It seems that it is not even close to the target that has been set; a rate of below but close to 2% over the medium term. April’s inflation data indicated a 0.7% inflation rate, a percentage not far away […]
An avalanche of disappointing statistics on Eurozone was released during the last two days, supporting the view that the single money zone is stuck in economic stagnation. The Business Climate Indicator (BCI), Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), the annual inflation and a euro area bank lending survey, all those statistics for April show that the euro […]
Five Eurozone countries posted negative inflation rate in March (Greece (-1.5%), Cyprus (-0.9%), Portugal (-0.4%), Spain and Slovakia (both -0.2%), while the rate of change of consumer prices ranged between 0.1% and 0.3% in another four euro area members states during the same month. In almost all the rest euro area countries, March inflation appeared […]
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, speaking in Washington DC last Wednesday 2 April stressed that the world economy, in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008-2012, faces a long period of slow and sub-par growth, “well below the solid, sustainable growth that is needed to create enough jobs and improve […]
In a six line and few words Press release, Eurostat, the EU statistical service, announced its flash estimate for March Eurozone inflation at 0.5% further down from 0.7% in February, setting wide open the deflation (negative inflation rates) trap for the 18 countries euro area. This fast disinflation (falling inflation rates) course started last October, […]
It has become a bad joke to hear the European Central Bank’s Governing Council repeating monotonously that the inflation target for the euro area is below, but close to 2%. Most of the time, the same or the next day the EU’s statistical service (Eurostat) releases data confirming that Eurozone’s inflation is below 1% and […]
In direct antithesis with the German Federal Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schauble, Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, raised yesterday the issue of the deflation risk (negative inflation, most prices fall) which could possibly engulf Eurozone. Draghi, after receiving the ‘Schumpeter Preis’ in a ceremony for the Schumpeter Award, at the Oesterreichische […]
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