dal NYT di oggi:
Something extraordinary is happening to the European economy: Southern nations that nearly broke up the euro currency bloc during the financial crisis in 2012 are growing faster than Germany and other big countries that have long served as the region’s growth engines.
The dynamic is bolstering the economic health of the region and keeping the eurozone from slipping too far. In a reversal of fortunes, the laggards have become leaders. Greece, Spain and Portugal grew in 2023 more than twice as fast as the eurozone average. Italy was not far behind.
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After years of international bailouts and harsh austerity programs, southern European countries made crucial changes that have attracted investors, revived growth and exports and reversed record-high unemployment.
Governments cut red tape and corporate taxes to stimulate business and pushed through changes to their once-rigid labor markets, including making it easier for employers to hire and fire workers and reducing the widespread use of temporary contracts. They moved to reduce sky-high debts and deficits, luring international pension and investment funds to start buying their sovereign debt again.
“These countries very much got their act together in the wake of the European crisis and are structurally more sound and more dynamic than they were before,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London.
