Confidence is Just around the Corner!

Kevin O'Rourke:

The good news: confidence is just around the corner, by Kevin O’Rourke, Irish Economy Blog: You might have thought that the disastrous but wholly unsurprising eurozone GDP numbers indicate that the bloc is in a bad way, and will continue to be so until the current macroeconomic policy mix is jettisoned.

Happily, Olli “Don’t mention the multiplier” Rehn has good news for us:

The current situation can be summarised like this: we have disappointing hard data from the end of last year, some more encouraging soft data in the recent past and growing investor confidence in the future.

Thank goodness for that.

As noted in the comments of the post, Rehn also says:

Rehn urged nations to keep cutting budgets and overhauling their economies in the face of slowing growth. In a statement, he said any shift away from fiscal consolidation would prolong the downturn.

“The decisive policy action undertaken recently is paving the way for a return to recovery,” Rehn said. “We must stay the course of reform and avoid any loss of momentum, which could undermine the turnaround in confidence that is under way, delaying the needed upswing in growth and job creation.”

See also "A week after official figures showed a steep fall in euro-zone output in late 2012 the European Commission has added to the gloom by unveiling some gloomy forecasts for 2013. ..."