The EU published its economic forecasts for each of the 27 member states for winter 2012-2013. The main message for the whole of the EU economy is that it is slowly coming out of a period of contraction.
The report notes an increased level of confidence in the governments of member states to rein in public debt to sustainable levels and to implement much-needed structural reforms. It forecasts moderate economic growth during 2013 but expresses a great deal of concern over the continuing high level of unemployment. It also makes the point that there is no time to be lost in addressing the economic challenges the EU is facing.
That is as far as the overall picture is concerned. Once one starts reading the titles that have been used to introduce the report on each country, we start to understand the detail; and there is some devil in the detail. In some instances it sounds like a medical bulletin after a bruising rugby game.
For example, it forecasts “sluggish growth” for Belgium; talks of “anaemic consumption” for the Czech Republic; refers to Poland as “flying on one engine”. In other cases it provides for a sense of optimism, such as in the case of the UK, where it refers to...
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