Ostrum
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
  • About Philippe Waechter
Philippe Waechter's blog
  • Insights
  • About us
  • Expertise
  • Our people
  • Media

Philippe Waechter's blog
My french blog
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
  • About Philippe Waechter
  • News & Chronicles
  • Climate
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
Philippe Waechter's blog
Prévôté
Next
  • 2 min

A simple measure of competitiveness in the Euro Area

  • 26 September 2013
  • Philippe Waechter
  • Euro Area
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Spain
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

Renewed competitiveness and structural reforms are expected to be the recipe for growth and employment in the Euro Area. The target is to change the growth framework in order to generate productivity gains.
These discussions were very interesting but the question we can have now is the following: which country has done something?
A simple measure for that can be exports. Their momentum shows how an economy can change its way of producing to be able to sell more products outside.
The chart below has looked at the 4 main countries of the Euro Area. I have taken nominal exports and I have based them at 100 during the first half of 2008 (before the Lehman moment). Data start on January 2008 until July 2013.
The chart is impressive.
Spain’s exports are 23% above the level they had during the first half of 2008. They have changed their mind and have made a lot of efforts to improve their competitiveness. As their internal demand was down after the real estate crash, they needed to find an impulse from outside. That’s a point seen on the chart. More exports will lead to higher production and it can be a way to exit from the current recession. It has been costly for everyone in Spain but a pay-off can be expected.
Germany has a moderate trajectory specifically since 2012. It is consistent with a low world trade momentum.
France and Italy have a low profile on exports. This probably reflects the lack of efforts on structural reforms and on competitiveness. They will have to change their mind as both of them have poor internal demand dynamics and may look at what Spaniards have done.
Fr-ger-sp-it-exp-july2013

 

 

Related Topics
  • Euro Area
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Spain
Subscribe to the newsletter

All the news from Philippe Waechter’s blog in your mailbox


Loading
ABOUT PHILIPPE WAECHTER

Le magazine d’experts d’Ostrum

ABOUT OSTRUM AM
  • About us
  • Media room
  • Our publications
  • Cookie Policy (EU)
FOLLOW ME ON
EXTERNAL LINKS
  • Economists
  • Think tank
  • Central banks
  • Blog roll
©Ostrum AM 2023
An affiliate of : Plan de travail 2

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}