Southern Europe – Will the outperformance last?
The countries in the south of the euro area have grown significantly faster than the other member countries in recent years.
Commerzbank Economic Research
12/06/2024
Periphery as the new growth star?
With the German economy stagnating for more than five years, many are pinning their hopes for the eurozone on the countries in the south of the monetary union. After all, the economy in these four countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) has recently grown much more strongly than in the rest of the eurozone. In the first half of this year, real gross domestic product there was between 15% and 20% higher than in the pandemic year 2020, while the economy in the rest of the eurozone only grew by just over 8%. This trend has continued until recently. For example, the Spanish economy is expected to grow by more than 2½% this year, while economic output is expected to increase by less than 1% in the eurozone as a whole and even shrink slightly in Germany.
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