Quarterly Report on the Euro Area (QREA), Vol.14, No.2 (2015)

The focus section of the report looks at euro area services sectors. It finds evidence that service sectors in the euro area are underperforming, meaning that reforms to address structural bottlenecks and support greater competition could contribute to boosting exports, growth and competitiveness. The two special features of the report deal with the economic impact of oil prices and business cycle synchronisation. The former finds that the recent fall in oil prices is likely to have had a substantial effect on economic growth and inflation. The latter shows that, due in particular to differences in deleveraging needs, the sovereign crisis has propagated heterogeneously across Member States, causing significant cross-country differences in domestic demand and persistent business cycle divergence.

Information and identifiers

Institutional Papers 1. July 2015. Brussels. PDF. 48pp. Tab. Graph. Free.

KC-BC-15-001-EN-N (online)    
ISBN 978-92-79-48597-8 (online)    
ISSN 2443-8014 (online)    
doi: 10.2765/284601 (online)

JEL classification: A10, C10, C11, C15, C20, C32, C33, E20, E30, E32, E61, F15, F40, F45, L80, L84, L89, Q41

Disclaimer

European Economy Institutional Papers are important reports analysing the economic situation and economic developments prepared by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, which serve to underpin economic policy-making by the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. Views expressed in unofficial documents do not necessarily represent the views of the European Commission.