WORLD> Europe
|
WORLD> Europe
|
|
Stimulus all the rage, bar Germany
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-01 11:01 Berlin will get a chance to explain its stand when European Union finance ministers meet on Monday and Tuesday to discuss how they might deliver on the proposal for an EU-wide stimulus package worth 200 billion euros ($260 billion).
France is preparing its contribution, due to be announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday, and Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced a package on Friday which he says is worth 80 billion euros. London has already announced a plan it says is worth 20 billion pounds ($31 billion). Many economists believe a lot of the figures being announced involved a mixture of truly new money and recycling of existing commitments, so it remains hard to evaluate the impact. Something must be done in any case, they say, at a time when unemployment is back on the rise and could surge. European data last week showed that the unemployment rate ticked upwards to 7.7 percent in October from 7.6 percent the previous month, and more ugly numbers are expected this coming Friday in the United States. Bank of America economists highlighted in a research note that employment as measured by the monthly non-farm payrolls data fell 77,000 a month on average in the first half of 2008, but by three to four times that amount in September and October. For the November data due on Friday, the prediction is that the fall will be 316,000, according to a poll conducted by Reuters, after a drop of 240,000 in October. |
