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The European Union’s economy grew 9.1 percent in the third quarter as restrictions on movement, gathering, and business eased and vaccination rates accelerated, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In contrast, the U.S. economy expanded only 2 percent for the quarter and China eked out only 1 percent more activity.
However, unlike China and the U.S., the Eurozone’s economy has not yet returned to pre-COVID levels because it plummeted further during 2020’s crisis than the other two countries did.
Analysts expect Europe’s recovery to slow in the months ahead; the continent’s economy depends more on manufacturing, compared to the U.S. GDP, in which services make up about 70 percent of economic activity.
Shortages of materials and parts, especially computer chips, and tangles in supply chains will restrain Europe’s economic expansion well into 2022, analysts told the WSJ.
Also, some governments have begun to reimpose restrictions, fearing that cold weather will reinvigorate the COVID virus.
TREND FORECAST: The Eurozone’s economy may have restored a portion of its pre-COVID productivity but its future growth will be shackled by COVID Passport restrictions which will hit tourism, restaurant, hospitality, entertainment, business travel, trade shows, conventions etc.
Indeed, even if 80 percent of the population is injected with the COVID Jab, that leaves a loss of 20 percent market share… which is essential.
Moreover, the cheap money flow of negative interest rate policy and quantitative easing are artificially propping up the economy… as it has since 2014.
With inflation rising, despite European Central Bank pledges to keep rates down, (See, “WILL ECB HOLD TO NEGATIVE INTEREST RATE?” in this Trends Journal, we forecast they will be pressured to raise them.