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 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...

This chapter considers recent developments of house prices in different European countries. There has been widespread worry that house prices might collapse as happened in Japan, the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries in the early 1990s. The country experiences in the last ten years are far...

This chapter is a primer of key economic issues in the reform of pension systems in the EU. The chapter begins with an overview on the strains on European pension systems that loom ahead as a result of the ageing populations in the EU countries. The old-age dependency ratios are forecasted to...