On Tuesday 23 April, the European Commission published the reports on the in-depth reviews of the macroeconomic imbalances observed in six Member States: Germany, Greece, France, Hungary, Italy and Portugal.
This year, in response to a request from the Council of the European Union, the in-depth reviews were presented prior to the publication of the country-specific recommendations in June. The aim is to enable detailed discussions with the countries concerned and to ensure that they incorporate the results of the reviews into the formulation of their national macroeconomic policy.
For Germany, the Commission notes that the persistent current account surplus, although lower than the level before the Covid-19 pandemic, does reflect strong exports, but also a deficit in public investment and stagnating household consumption.
For France, the Commission believes that the vulnerabilities linked to high public debt persist, while those linked to competitiveness problems, in a context of low productivity growth, are showing signs of reduction. It believes that the measures taken are a step in the right direction.
See the six in-depth reviews: https://aeur.eu/f/bhu
At the end of March, the Commission published in-depth reviews of the macroeconomic imbalances observed in six other EU countries: Cyprus, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden (see EUROPE 13378/16). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)