Arnaud Lechevalier » Blog Archive » La perte de compétitivité de la France par rapport à l’Allemagne : une affaire de coûts du travail ? (I) La singularité de l’Allemagne réunifiée. Dans un contexte où la crise de l’euro pose avec une acuité renouvelée la question d’une convergence accrue des politiques économiques et sociales à l’échelle de l’Union Economique et Monétaire, où l’Allemagne joue un rôle de leader, il est important de mettre en perspective les clés du succès de l’économie allemande en terme de compétitivité au cours de la dernière décennie. Alors que la récente publication des chiffres du commerce extérieur de part et d’autre du Rhin confirme le fort rebond des exportations outre-Rhin et le déficit record de la balance extérieure française, un rapport de l’institut Coe-Rexecode, réalisé pour le ministère de l’Economie, des Finances et de l’Industrie, délivre un diagnostic et propose des solutions pour « mettre un terme à la divergence de compétitivité entre la France et l’Allemagne ».
Principal enseignement ? Competitiveness and the smooth functioning of EMU. Speech by Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB, Lecture at the University of Liège, Liège, 23 February 2011 1.
Introduction What should we understand by the concept of competitiveness, what does it mean in particular for the euro area – and how should we act upon it? These are the questions I would like to explore with you today. They are questions I have been contemplating all my life as an economic policy-maker. [1] And they are questions that are central to the future of the national economies of Europe – and of particular importance among those that constitute our Economic and Monetary Union. Competitiveness is a difficult idea to nail down decisively and is commonly used to depict very different things – from securing export market shares, through taxation of corporate profits, indexation of wages and investment in high-tech, to boosting productivity growth.
The objective of achieving sustainable long-term growth in an open economy is both European and global. II. III. IV. 1. 2. Interview with Les Echos. You have recently expressed your concern about a return of inflation in the euro area.
Which feeling is uppermost today? Between concern about growth and inflation, which one prevails? The real economy has had some rather good surprises for us, quarter after quarter. The return of growth was observed in the third quarter of 2009 and since then we have seen that the euro area is doing a little better than expected. The latest indicators since the end of 2010 confirm this. So the recovery seems to you less “chaotic”, to take up the term you used on one occasion... We must always be wary of quarterly figures, as they can be very volatile. The concern has now shifted to price stability... Everyone knows that we are inflexible on inflation risks. Do you believe in the possibility of second-round effects resulting from wage increases, as we are now seeing in Germany? The ECB has embarked on a series of non-standard measures to react to the crisis. Competitiveness is at the root of everything. Addressing imbalances in the euro area.
Speech by Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, Halle Institute for Economic Research, Halle an der Saale, 14 February 2011 Introduction [1] It is a pleasure to be here today and share with you my thoughts on a challenging topic: how to address imbalances in the euro area.
The euro area has been expanding: five countries joined EMU between 2007 and 2011, and this process will continue in the years to come. The enlargement process is one of the features that make EMU unique. The existence of a single monetary policy combined with national responsibilities for fiscal, structural and supervisory policies is the other distinct characteristic of EMU. To answer these questions I will organise my talk in three parts. First, I will discuss how and why imbalances and vulnerabilities have emerged in the euro area. Let me now turn to the first part of my talk. 1. Neoclassical growth theory suggests that catching-up countries would experience faster economic growth. 2. 3. Financiers in Switzerland: Careful what you wish for.