Eurostat/Euro area and EU28 job vacancy rates at 2.3%/18 March 2019 The job vacancy rate in the euro area (EA19) was 2.3% in the fourth quarter of 2018, up from 2.1% in the third quarter of 2018 and from 2.0% in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the EU28, the job vacancy rate was also 2.3% in …Read More
Carlo Alcaraz, Stijn Claessens, Gabriel Cuadra, David Marques-Ibanez and Horacio Sapriza, (2019), “Whatever it takes: what’s the impact of a major nonconventional monetary policy intervention?”, ECB Working Paper Series No2249, March We assess how a major, unconventional central bank intervention, Draghi’s “whatever it takes” speech, affected lending conditions. Similar to other large interventions, it responded to adverse financial and macroeconomic developments that also influenced the supply and demand for credit. …Read More
Alvaro Leandro and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, (2019), “Ηow Worrying Is the Recent Downgrading of German Growth Forecasts?”, Peterson Institute for International Economics, 15 March Growth in Germany has been very weak since the third quarter of 2018. The reason is a combination of one-off factors, including a drought and a new EU emissions testing procedure, which held back car sales last year, as well as cooling demand for German exports. As …Read More
Adam Tooze, (2019), “What are central banks for?”, Social Europe, 18 March The eurozone remains mired in unemployment while the European Central Bank targets only inflation. Adam Tooze begins a series of Social Europe columns by explaining the hidden history of the Fed’s more successful dual mandate. Relevant Posts Gregory Claeys, Maria Demertzis and Jan Mazzaa, (2018), «Monetary policy framework for the European Central Bank to deal with uncertainty», Bruegel, …Read More
Eurostat/Highest proportion of government expenditure goes to social protection and health/15 March 2019 In 2017, total government expenditure in the European Union (EU) amounted to 45.8% of gross domestic product (GDP). This share has steadily decreased since 2012, when it stood at 48.9% of GDP. Among the main functions of general government expenditure in the EU, ‘social protection’ is by far the most important, equivalent to 18.8% of GDP in …Read More
Theodore Pelagidis, (2019), “Greek economy: From bailout program exit to recovery?”, Brookings, 6 March The recent upgrade of Greece’s long-term foreign credit rating by Moody’s from B3 to B1 is expected to encourage investor uptake of a 10-year, 2.5-billion-euro Greek government bond launching this week. At odds with this cautiously encouraging development was the European Commission’s (EC) enhanced surveillance report issued on February 27. Layered over this are persistent political …Read More
Joshua Kirschenbaum and NicolasVeron, (2019), “The European Union must change its supervisory architecture to fight money laundering”, 26 February Money laundering scandals at EU banks, often linked to Russia, have become pervasive. Reform of anti–money laundering (AML) supervision is urgent. Illicit actors have repeatedly moved billions of dollars through individual banks. This flow sustains the Kremlin’s patronage system at home by serving as an outlet for elites while it simultaneously …Read More
Ester Faia and Vincenzo Pezone, (2019), “Monetary policy and the cost of wage rigidity: Evidence from the stock market”, VoxEU, 12 March Policymakers are concerned about effecting real change with monetary policy, particularly in the context of wage rigidity. This column uses extensive Italian data to analyse the extent to which wage rigidity induced by collective bargaining amplifies the effects of monetary policy. The volatility of stock market returns reacts …Read More
International Monetary Fund-European Department, (2019), “Greece : First Post-Program Monitoring Discussions-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Greece”, Country Report No. 19/73, 12 March The economic recovery in Greece is accelerating and broadening. Growth and job creation in Greece are expected to accelerate further in 2019. Public sector financing needs remain manageable under the baseline due to strong fiscal balances, low debt servicing costs, and a …Read More
ECB, (2019), “ECB staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area”, March Real GDP growth remained unexpectedly sluggish in the fourth quarter of 2018, and recent indicators point to substantially weaker than previously expected activity also in the first half of 2019. While some temporary factors are likely to have contributed to the slowdown in activity in late 2018, the broad-based worsening of economic sentiment indicators across countries and sectors in …Read More
