OECD, (2014), “Economic Challenges and Policy Recommendations for the Euro Area”, OECD Better Policies Series, Φεβρουάριος.
Following a major crisis that has caused wide-spread unemployment in many countries, a certain degree of optimism is returning to the euro area. GDP growth in the region is slow but positive, signaling the exit from the recession. Financial market conditions are also showing signs of improvement and foreign investors are returning to the battered markets of countries such as Ireland, Portugal and Spain. In the past five years, the European authorities have taken significant measures to address the fiscal, financial and external imbalances that had widened in the run-up to the crisis, and to strengthen the region’s fiscal and financial institutions. These efforts are finally beginning to pay off. For the area as a whole, the government debt-GDP ratio is stabilising, although at levels that are much too high in many countries, with Greece (172%), Italy (133%), Portugal (129%) and Ireland (125%), in particular, still having a long way to go to lower debt to comfortable levels.
The euro area has also embarked on a process of banking union that, if successfully completed, will strengthen financial stability and will potentially reduce vulnerabilities. Despite the gradually improving situation, the near-term outlook for growth is still subdued and uncertain, and unemployment – at 12% on average in the euro area – remains too high, while youth unemployment is stuck at over 50% in countries such as Greece and Spain. To address this situation, the euro area needs to continue policy reform efforts that will support the recovery, promote competitiveness, and boost job creation. Such reforms will also help restrain the build-up of unsustainable current account deficits in the future and contribute to closer integration among euro area members.
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Σχετικές Αναρτήσεις
- OECD, (2013), OECD Economic Outlook, Vol. 2013/2, OECD Publishing.
- OECD, (2013), OECD Economic Surveys: Greece 2013, Paris: OECD Publishing.