Eurozone Quarterly: Still in lockdown blues

Eurozone: The underachiever

The sluggish pace of the vaccination campaign continues to jeopardise the eurozone recovery, though stronger manufacturing and construction activity are…

Savings: the two-sided wildcard for growth

In the first lockdown, surging savings rates across the Western hemisphere were mainly the result of involuntary savings. As a result, the reopening of…

Germany: All good things eventually come to an end

Despite the messy and chaotic vaccination programme, Germany's economy is holding up relatively well, benefiting from better vaccination rollouts than…

France: The economy could outperform its European neighbours

The year 2020 ended with a further fall in French GDP and the first quarter of 2021 is not expected to see any significant improvement. Nevertheless, the…

Italy: An eye on reform

Mario Draghi’s government set a speedier vaccination rollout and the Recovery and Resilience Plan as obvious priorities. Success on both fronts will…

The Netherlands: Preparing for lift-off

The Dutch economy is forecast to grow by 2.4% in 2021, after a record decline in 2020. The year starts with a quarter of negative growth, but as social…

Spain: Consumers and tourists to the rescue?

The worsening of the health situation at the beginning of 2021 will probably lead to a contraction of activity in the first quarter. But afterwards, we…

Greece: Hoping for vaccine availability

The higher dependence on tourism makes faster vaccination crucial for Greece in view of the summer season. In the meantime, effective labour protection…

Belgium: The abnormal cycle

From an economic point of view, the Covid crisis is unlike any other. It has been very deep in terms of activity, but the labour market has shown great…

Austria: Walking a tightrope

Keeping Covid-19 cases under control whilst bringing the economy back on track will be a tough balancing act during the next few months. A loss of balance…

Portugal: A postponed recovery

An extension of the lockdown does not bode well for economic activity in the short run, but we still think that economic activity will pick up from the…

Ireland: Looks can be deceiving

Positive growth in 2020 masks underlying weakness in the economy, although Ireland does seem well positioned to recover from the crisis compared to other…

Finland: A mild pandemic limits the damage

In comparison to the rest of the eurozone, Finland has experienced a very mild pandemic despite the recent rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. Thanks to…

Housing markets in the eurozone

While all eurozone economies saw major contractions in economic activity in 2020, the impact on residential real estate prices was diverse. Some countries…