2 Feb 2015
Euro Area GDP is still inferior to pre-crisis levels - ECB's Visco
FXStreet (Mumbai) - The euro area's GDP is still below pre-crisis levels and looks set remain so for at least the whole of 2015, the European Central bank (ECB) Governing Council Ignazio Visco said on Friday, urging governments to push ahead with structural efforts. However, he expects the economy to return to pre-crisis levels in 2016.
Key Quotes:
"There's the risk that the crisis leaves a permanent sign on our economies, well beyond the short term. In the whole of the Euro zone countries the level of (gross domestic) product is still inferior to pre-crisis levels; and according to forecasts it will return to such levels only between the end of this year and the beginning of 2016,"
Shifting focus to his homeland Italy, he said that that the only way to exit recession was to remove "structural obstacles," such as hampered access to the labor market, particularly by youth, and the "prolonged" phases of unemployment which negatively impact on the quality of human capital.
"In order to return to a stable and sustainable economic growth it will not be enough to simply exit from the current difficult outlook, but it is necessary to destroy the structural obstacles of our economy and society."
Key Quotes:
"There's the risk that the crisis leaves a permanent sign on our economies, well beyond the short term. In the whole of the Euro zone countries the level of (gross domestic) product is still inferior to pre-crisis levels; and according to forecasts it will return to such levels only between the end of this year and the beginning of 2016,"
Shifting focus to his homeland Italy, he said that that the only way to exit recession was to remove "structural obstacles," such as hampered access to the labor market, particularly by youth, and the "prolonged" phases of unemployment which negatively impact on the quality of human capital.
"In order to return to a stable and sustainable economic growth it will not be enough to simply exit from the current difficult outlook, but it is necessary to destroy the structural obstacles of our economy and society."