European Economic Profile, Europe Economy, European Union Economy, The European Economy
Europe in 2008 is estimated to contain a population of 800,401,065. According to figures released by IMF, European Union is set to generate an estimated €12 581 billion of nominal GDP for year 2008. Seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment in EU stood at 6.7% in March 2008.
Europe economy is profoundly influenced by activities of European Union. As per January 1, 2007 data, European Union had twenty-seven member nations. Euro is official currency of European Union. It is used actively in Eurozone comprising fifteen member nations of EU.
Performance of Europe economy 2007-2008
Throughout 2007, Europe had maintained a relatively robust economic performance in face of US mortgage loan crisis, global slowdown of growth rate and worldwide inflationary pressures. Both International Monetary Fund and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development had hailed European economy, on the whole for its solid performance in face of global economic instability in 2007.
However, the situation showed a turn for the worse from the later half of 2008. European nations like Italy, Spain and later UK have lately run into financial problems. Denmark has officially entered a recessionary phase. Ireland has scaled down its growth expectations to virtually nil. There has been no growth for Spain. The UK entered into a recession.
Europe's biggest economy, Germany, is also experiencing economic difficulties. Market analysts argue that increasing costs, strong Euro and declining demand have combined together to bring out this situation. Banks across Europe have cut down on lending activities meant for both corporate and individual entities. With a view to contain inflation European Central Bank (ECB) went for a 0.25 percentage point hike on July 3, 2008 of key lending rate in Europe.
Soaring oil prices and hikes in food and raw material prices had pushed Europe's inflation rate to 4% in June 2008. Britain, Ireland and Spain have recored a decline in consumer spending in concerned reference period. However employment wise, apart from Spain other regions have recorded fairly robust figures. There had been infact a rise in job related to health care, tourism and hospitality sector. There have been some loss of jobs in banking sector though. This is as per information available from a June 2008 job survey data.