The economic situation in the euro area continues to be weak. In the course of 2003, real GDP has only stagnated. Several factors prevented the expected recovery to materialize. Last year’s collapse of stock prices dampened activity, so did the high oil price. In addition, the uncertainty in...

For the meeting of the Association d'Instituts Européens de Conjoncture Economique (AIECE) in May, Klaus-Jürgen Gern, Christophe Kamps, and Joachim Scheide prepared the General Report. It is now published as Kiel Discussion Paper 376/377 and supplemented by the country notes of other AIECE...