The eurozone has survived the twin shocks of the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and its own crisis of 2010-12. It is enjoying a good recovery. That is no justification for complacency, however: the eurozone’s real output per head has suffered a lost decade. The recovery is, rather, an opportunity for reforms, at both national and eurozone level. The question is which reforms to choose.
This year, real gross domestic product per head in the eurozone will finally surpass its 2007 level. Since 2013, eurozone output per head has been rising at much the same rate as in the US. The main explanation for this turnround, beyond the normal cyclical forces, has been the determination of the European Central Bank, under Mario Draghi, to do its job properly. (See charts.)
A decisive moment was Mr Draghi’s remark, in July 2012, a moment of crisis in sovereign debt markets, that: “Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough.” He was right. The announcement of the ECB’s “Outright Monetary Transactions” programme in August 2012 turned his promise into a policy. That shifted market opinion and lowered elevated yields on Italian and Spanish sovereign bonds. The ECB slashed interest rates and, in 2015, also launched its asset purchase programme.