At the beginning of 2011, the recovery phase seen in the global economy over the past two years reached a degree of maturity. Activity in the various economic regions should gradually progress from being export-led to become more broadly based. At the same time, the improvement in the economic...

Since the previous forecasts were published in February 2009, the downturn in activity and international trade in late 2008 and early 2009 has proved to be even sharper than initially expected. An unprecedentedly deep recession has spread across the various economic regions of the world,...

The backdrop to the forecasting exercise paints a contrasting picture : the initial situation of the projections appears slightly more favourable than in the previous forecast exercise of autumn 2005, with the Belgian economy displaying undoubted momentum at the beginning of 2006. However, a...

Since the publication of the previous forecasts in June 2008, the economic outlook has deteriorated very rapidly, both at global level and for Belgium. The financial tensions which emerged in mid 2007 turned into a serious crisis, and the contagion effects on the real economy proliferated,...

Coinciding with the publication in the ECB monthly bulletin of new Eurosystem projections for the euro area, this article presents the results for the Belgian economy for 2008 and 2009. Since the previous forecasts were published in December 2007, the deterioration in the external factors has...

Since the publication of the Bank’s spring projections, the growth of activity in the euro area in the first half of 2006 has been stronger than previously predicted and oil prices, after rising further during the summer, have fallen to a level hovering around 60 dollars since October 2006. In...

Since the projections published in December 2006, the international environment has remained buoyant. GDP growth in the euro area, which proved stronger than previously expected over the last months, should keep going at a solid pace in 2007. In Belgium, economic activity has been particularly...

Twice a year, in June and December, the National Bank of Belgium publishes the macroeconomic projections for the Belgian economy for the current and the following year. The current projections cover the years 2005 and 2006. These projections make up the national component of the broad...

Since the publication of the Bank’s spring projections, the growth of activity and employment has proved robust in the euro area and in Belgium in the first half of 2007. However, the external environment has become more uncertain, owing to the financial market turmoil, the appreciation of the...

The particularly rapid acceleration in inflation in Belgium and the fact that it is currently outpacing inflation in the euro area has, in some circles, raised questions as to the role of the indexation mechanism. A first question which might arise concerns the extent to which that mechanism...