On Monday 13 February, the European Commission raised its growth forecasts for 2023, on the back of a better-than-expected end to 2022. The euro area and the European Union should therefore avoid a technical contraction at the beginning of 2023, with their GDP growing by 0.9 and 0.8% respectively over the whole of the current year and by 1.5 and 1.6% in 2024. In November, the EU institution had been expecting a weak growth of 0.3% for both the euro area and the EU27 (see EUROPE...