This chapter discusses the current economic situation and the future outlook for Europe stressing the cause and implications of a strong euro as well as the need for a common fiscal framework through an improvement of the Stability and Growth Pact.

This chapter is devoted to the widely debated topic of outsourcing of production and jobs from the Western EU member countries to the new member countries and also to the rest of the world. This trend is clearly visible in the manufacturing sector in the European Union. Outsourcing is mainly a...

This chapter discusses the current situation and economic outlook for 2005 for the European economy. As a main scenario, it is forecasted that GDP in the euro area will grow at about the same rate as in 2004, that is around 13/4 percent on average. The recovery remains fragile and depends on...

Growth performance among the EU-15 countries has been mixed. While it has been sluggish in France, Germany and Italy, several other EU countries have done well. Some successful countries, such as Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the UK, have relied strongly on the introduction of new technologies,...

This chapter discusses the challenge to macroeconomic stabilisation in the ten new members of the EU during the convergence process posed by liberalised capital markets.The focus is on financial and currency fragility created by dangerously high volatility of capital flows and possible policies...

Authors of the Report on the European Economy 2006

Authors of the Report on the European Economy 2005

This chapter looks in detail at the macroeconomic performance of Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Finland and Sweden have achieved high output growth but less satisfactory employment growth. Denmark has been less successful in terms of output growth, but labour market performance has been...

This chapter reviews working time developments in Western Europe. The main issue is whether recent agreements on longer working time (at unchanged pay) in Germany represent a reversal of the earlier trend towards shorter working time that could also spread to other Western European countries...