The eurozone is confronted with a crisis of not just labour costs and prices – but culture. The burden is primarily on southern Europe, where sovereign bond credit spreads (relative to the German Bund) range from 370 basis points (Italy) to 1,960 basis points (Greece). The northern eurozone countries have tight spreads against Germany – a narrow 40 to 80 basis points for the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and France. There are thus two distinctly defined eurozone areas: in the north and in the south.
欧元区面临的危机不仅关乎劳动力成本和价格,更关乎文化。首当其冲的是南欧国家,这些国家的主权债券相对于德国国债(Bund)的信用利差,从370个基点(意大利)到1960个基点(希腊)不等。欧元区北部地区的国家相对于德国国债的利差很小,荷兰、奥地利、芬兰和法国都在40到80个基点之内,差距不大。因此,欧元区内部存在着南、北两个特征截然不同的区域。