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What mess? 0,2% (the real growth for the 3 months) is disappointing but still decent enough. It's on par with France, Germany, the USA and the UE's average.
officially it's 0,2%, but with black market economy it's probably more like 5%.
No, the black market economy, including drug trade and prostitution, is added up to the GDP already.
The truth is simple enough: Italy needs DEEP spending cut with a concurrent cut on labour tax.
And a gigantic effort to bring the rule of law to the mafia-ridden southern regions.
Until this is done, Italy will continue to underperform, to the point of being at risk of a debt default.
And most importantly, its best and brightest young citizens will continue to leave in droves.
No, the black market economy, including drug trade and prostitution, is added up to the GDP already.
The truth is simple enough: Italy needs DEEP spending cut with a concurrent cut on labour tax.
And a gigantic effort to bring the rule of law to the mafia-ridden southern regions.
Until this is done, Italy will continue to underperform, to the point of being at risk of a debt default.
And most importantly, its best and brightest young citizens will continue to leave in droves.
Spending needs to happen in the right areas, we shouldn't cut on essential services such as those guaranteed by the little welfare we have as well as the educational and justice system which are already lacking. Renzi is cutting spending quite successfully, he just needs to readdress the electoral gifts towards a cut on fiscal pressure on firm owners, especially small and medium sized firms.
By the way, one of the negative points against the current government is that once again it cares little about the South
Quote:
Originally Posted by J.Thomas
Poor Finland
But what can they do about this??
I think Europe will head into a recession again.
Sorry but these growth rates are not gonna cut it.
I believe it will head through hard times in 2016 again as well, maybe not recession as a whole but a couple countries such are gonna struggle
It does, why do you keep talking about things you don't know to someone who lives, breathes, study, ecc. in the South? I really wanna know where do you base your conceptions of the South of. From the looks of it, it seems that you've seen the Godfather and a couple other mob films and are now painting Southern Itlay all under that same brush.
In real terms the US economy has grown 10.6% from its 2007 level... not super impressive, but much better than the 1.7% achieved by Western Europe. Western Europe now has a smaller economy than the US for the first time since the late 1950s when Europe was still recovering from WWII.
(It should also be noted that European GDP calculations add things in that the US doesn't count, If the US did it's economy would be ~3% larger.)
LOL First, you don't seem to understand that I meant the growth rate in Q4 2014.
What means Western Europe? This distinction is quite anusual. It's common to compare the U.S. with the EU. Why are you using such an uncommon distinction? According to the figures from IMF for 2014:
European Union: 18,640
China: 18,088
U.S.: 17,348
Why the source by "Conference Board" is able to publish the figures for 2015, when Eurostat don't have published the figures for the EU so far?
What things are added to the European GDP, that are not added to the U.S. GDP? I guess you mean the new calculation methods (e.g. research spendings considered as investment). Statistical authorities around the world had decided to change the way they measure the GDP. Both the U.S. and Europe has changed the calculation method. The U.S. has even changed the method prior it was changed in Europe. Changes to How the U.S. Economy is Measured Roll Out July 31 | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
But the most important thing is (most people are unable to understand this). These PPP adjustments are rather nonsense. It only could work when there is something like a basket of goods that is valid for all countries around the world. But something like this will never exist. The diet in India is completely different to the diet in Finland. Bikes are much more common in China then in the U.S. How are the spendings for bikes weighted? This stupid PPP adjustment will never consider quality differences. Are houses in the U.S. of the same quality then houses in Switzerland? Is the average cheese in the U.S. of the same quality then the average cheese in France? What about the spendings for health care? Do you really believe that they are able to measure the quality of the health care services? That's impossible. What about the spendings for new houses? Of course the size of the houses are an issue. But every country uses different methods to measure the size of the living area. It's not possible to compare the spendings per sq ft.
How are those GDP growth figures calculated? They try to estimate all spendings and add them together. And then compare it to the figures from the previous period. Then we will get the nominal growth rate. But then we have to calculate the GDP deflator. But the U.S. uses for much more products the method of hedonic regression to determine the GDP deflator. That means for example that rising prices of new house construction in the U.S. are to a higher extent considered as quality improvements and not as an increase in prices. If you would use the European method to determine the U.S. GDP deflator, the real growth rates in the U.S. would be lower. The U.S. even uses the hedonic regression method for clothes. In the EU the method is just used for some technical goods.
Do you have ever thought about the rising price differences between the U.S. and the EU? Why are domestic made products in the U.S. so expensive? Most buiding materials at Home Depot in the U.S. cost almost double what they cost at a DIY store in Germany.
Eurostat isn't able to deliver reliable figures for the prices of food products in different EU countries. Because every country determine prices for varying food products. When it is even within the EU impossible to compare the food prices, how should that work within the world?
It's absolutely absurd to compare PPP adjusted GDP figures or to compare GDP growth rates. Of course it makes a lot of fun to compare such figures. But it's more like comparing apples to oranges.
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