Hope for continental recovery, in 2013
After years of austerity measures and financial reforms aimed at unhealthy economies and national debt levels, a top European official on Tuesday cited hopeful signs that a “slow and subdued” European recovery could begin by next year. Olli Rehn, vice president of the European Commission, the European Union’s (EU) executive body, said that the average budget deficit of European nations has fallen from 6 percent in 2009 and 2010 to 4 percent in 2011, and is expected to fall 3 percent this year and next. Beyond that, he said the economic reforms show signs of working, with fiscally troubled Ireland now able to access financial markets, surprising export growth in struggling Portugal, difficult banking reforms approaching passage in Spain, and budgetary progress in Greece, where the deficit has fallen from 16 percent of the overall budget in 2009 to 6 percent this year. “I am bringing better news from across the ocean,” Rehn...