Eurozone: Will the pick-up in productivity last? - ING

Analysts at ING, explain that as the Eurozone recovery matures, a focus on medium-term growth is returning and with the population ageing, productivity gains seem to be the key to improved growth potential.

Key Quotes

“Even though the short-term outlook for productivity is improving, a more permanent pickup is not yet assured, as long as lagging companies fail to catch up. In that regard, structural reforms have yet to produce noticeable effects in key sectors. It could, therefore, take some time before the Eurozone breaks out of its structural productivity rut even though the trough seems to have passed. From now to 2025, we expect 1.3% productivity growth annually.”

“For the ECB, this is a classic Catch-22. It is damned if it continues to keep easy financing conditions in place for keeping unproductive firms alive, and damned if it doesn’t as it kills off catch-up opportunities for laggards.”