Brussels, 12/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On top of their long talks over the issue of the German and Portuguese Stability Programmes (see separate article) on Monday in Eurogroup, the eurozone's economics ministers assessed the general economic situation and made a new assessment of the introduction of euro notes and coins.
Following on from the G7's conclusions on Saturday in Ottawa (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.12), the financial ministers from the Eurogroup along with the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Economics and Finance Committee (EFC) said that there had been encouraging signs that the economy might be picking up, signs that led them to believe that they were coming out of the dip, in the words of Rodrigo Rato, the President of Eurogroup. He added that an economic upturn had also been noted in the US although the first signs will not be confirmed until the next few weeks. Given the good fundamentals of the European economy, the absence of external imbalances and the household savings ratio, there seem to be good grounds for the economy to pick up in the short-term. In the medium or longer term, he added, economic growth should become stronger when we meet the structural reform targets pursued by the ECOFIN Council.
In their analysis of how the euro is going down, the eurozone finance ministers took note of the absence of inflationary pressures connected with the changeover to euro notes and coins, with recent inflation figures being put down to bad weather conditions, the general economic climate and the administrative situation in various Member States, noted Mr Rato. Inflation has not risen and the impact of any rise there may have been is due to factors other than the introduction of the single currency, argued Commissioner Pedro Solbes. The Commission outlined to Eurogroup its conclusions on the eight updated Stability and Growth Programmes that will be examined by the ECOFIN Council.