EUROPE - Official data released this morning showed that the Spanish economy shrank by
1.3% in the second quarter of 2012, on a year-on-year basis. That's worse than
the first estimate, of a 1% drop in GDP. The contraction in the first three
months of 2012 has also been revised down to -0.6% year-on-year, from -0.4%. On
a quarterly basis, Spain shrank by 0.4% between April and June, and 0.3% between
January and March. This comes a day after Spanish GDP data for 2011 and 2010
were revised down, showing that Europe's fourth-biggest economy is in rather
worse shape than feared. The news comes as Spain prepares to welcome the EC
president, Herman Van Rompuy. He will hold talks with the Spanish PM, Mariano
Rajoy, today: another piece of euro-diplomacy in the approach to key events in
September. Spain is also holding an auction of short-term debt this morning,
but that should go smoothly, given the recent recovery in Spanish sovereign
debt.Angela Merkel has urged other politicians to rein in
their criticism of Greece.
Elsewhere,
political tensions remain high in the eurozone after a war of words over the
weekend in Germany regarding Greece's future. Alexander Dobrindt, general
secretary of the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats,
began the spat by declaring that Greece would quit the single currency by 2013.
But with the Bundesbank chair, Jens Weidmann, launching another full-throated
attack on the European Central Bank's plan to buy Spanish and Italian debt –
warning that bond-buying could be 'addictive, like a drug' – there's still no
unity on how to address the crisis …
1 comment:
It would be a bit of an understatement to say that during the last 25 years we have witnessed some of the most profound political, social and economic changes in Europe's history. The fall of communism at the end of the 1980s not only reshaped relationships within the continent but also provided fascinating insights into the potential for, and limitations of, the large-scale reshaping of society.
With this in mind the ESF's report aims at identifying the developments in CEE which may have the potential to become hot research topics in the study of these regions as a part of European society, and as such be promoted and endorsed by national and European grant institutions. The report also outlines ways in which foresight on CEE can contribute to the development of the social sciences in general and input important topics into transnational research.
Commenting on the report, Robert Burmanjer, head of the Social Sciences and Humanities unit at the European Commission, said: 'The Forward Look provides a well-elaborated insight and recommendations
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