Courtesy of Mish.
The European Commission slashed Eurozone GDP Estimates (yet again), yet they remain in positive territory.
Revision Summary
- The EC revised Ireland, Malta, and Slovenia up.
- Greece and Netherlands were flat.
- The EC revised every other country lower from forecasts made in May of 2014.
Notably, the EC cut the Germany forecast from 2% to 1.1% now. France went from 1.5% to 0.7%.
Still Too Optimistic
The revised forecast still seems very rosy.
Unless one uses the strict definition of two consecutive quarters of declining growth, Europe is arguably in recession right now. Greece, Spain, and Italy are actually in economic depressions.
Greece GDP may be positive, but from a crushingly low level and Greek unemployment remains over 26 percent. Youth unemployment is over 50%. It’s tough to view the state of affairs as anything other than an economic depression with unemployment rates that high.
France is at best treading water, and Germany has slowed markedly. Absurd sanctions on Russia hurt the entire Eurozone, and the slowdown in China is icing on the cake.
Goldman’s Model Shows Recession
As I was pondering the ridiculousness of those European Commission forecasts, Zerohedge reported Europe In Triple-Dip Recession, Goldman’s Internal Model Finds….
