For quite some time I have been annoyed by the never-ending complaints of politicians and lobbyists that Western European countries were lacking international competitiveness, and

Everything has already been said about the debt brake – but not by everybody, as the Bavarian poet Karl Valentin might have said. Here is

The central message of the IMF’s new  World Economic Outlook is that the world’s real GDP will continue to grow in coming years, if not as briskly

Last week the International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its annual report (World Energy Outlook 2024), the most important source of data for those who

The disruptions of natural gas imports from Russia, as a retaliation for Western sanctions after the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, have brought home the point

For several months now, European and American inflation rates have come in lower than expected by most market participants while China’s price levels continue to

There are two important and stable global trends which will determine the structure of our economies. Decision makers have to take them into account: 1)

… even if Bruno Le Maire thinks so. For seven years he has been Economy and Finance Minister in Macron’s government and should know what

Overall, the political center has held its ground somewhat better than many had feared at the recent elections to the European parliament, in stark contrast

Euro area consumer price inflation rates fall less rapidly than I had expected in the autumn of 2023. ECB analysts are now predicting an average

Since the beginning of the year the price of gold has increased by about 15%, both in dollar and euro terms – over the past

Free trade is no longer, trade restrictions are the new normal. Yesterday, the US administration announced that tariffs on imports from China of EVs, batteries,