Economic Assessment of the Euro Area: Winter 2013/2014

In the fifth year after the financial crisis and related Great Recession began, the world economy continues to grow. However, the world growth rate in 2013 was clearly weaker than in the pre-crisis years. The headline inflation in major economies has decelerated and rates have converged globally across the world in 2013 to levels below the central bank targets. In the fall of 2013, the core inflation rate, excluding energy and food, fell to around 1.7 in the US and slightly below 1 per cent in the Euro Area. In Japan, core inflation showed a modest rise after an average 1 percent annual decrease in 2009-2012. Low inflation has been related to stagnant economic growth in the industrialised after the Great Recession of 2008/9. Such low rates are expected to prevail in 2014. In 2015 prices are expected to rise slightly as economic growth strengthens.

To find out more about the central banks' goals, global monetary policies and expected interest rates in the Euro Area read the full "Economic Assessment of the Euro Area: Winter 2013/2014" report, produced by EUROFRAME network.

EUROFRAME is an initiative for improved forecasting and macroeconomic analysis in the European Union, founded by ten European independent research institutes: CASE (Poland), ESRI (Ireland), CPB (Netherlands), DIW Berlin (Germany), ETLA (Finland), The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Germany), NIESR (United Kingdom), OFCE (France), PROMETEIA (Italy) and WIFO (Austria).

We would also like to kindly remind you about the upcoming 11th EUROFRAME Conference on Economic Policy Issues in the European Union: What future for taxation in the EU? The call for papers is still open until March 10th, 2014. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail to catherine.mathieu@ofce.sciences-po.fr. To find out more about the conference and submission procedure click here.