EU's Growing Trade Deficit With China Bodes Poorly For The Future

While we read a great deal about the huge trade deficit America runs with China it is important to understand we are not the only one. Other countries also have this problem.

Europe as a whole runs a solid trade deficit with China. In some ways, this is balanced by the EU having a surplus with America. Still, in many ways, a growing trade deficit with China bodes poorly for the EU as they look down the road.

Reuters reports the European Union’s trade surplus in goods with the United States and its deficit with China both increased in the first seven months of 2019. Eurostat, the EU statistics office, reported the European Union’s surplus with the United States grew to 100.8 billion dollars in Jan-July 2019 from 88.6 billion in the same period of 2018. During that time the EU’s trade deficit with China expanded to 120.9 billion dollars from 109.2. This comes at a time that trade figures are adding extra strain to global tensions.

This brings up the importance of what countries buy and sell to each other. If a county's exports are not centered around products where they have a core advantage over time they can see them erode. I contend part of the problem the EU has going forward is that much of the EU is simply uncompetitive. This means unless it takes strong action to halt the importation of cheap Chinese consumer goods it will be flooded with them in coming years. Since Europe does not sell China much in the way of "raw goods" it has little to balance this trade.

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Full ECB Preview: Draghi Parting Gift - A Bazooka Or A Water Pistol?

Tomorrow, at 13:45am CET (7:45am ET) the will unveil its Draghi "Swan Song" Monetary Policy Decision, with a press conference Due At 13:30BST, (08:30ET)

• Surveyed analysts look for the ECB to cut the deposit rate by 10bps with the Main Refi and Marginal Lending rates seen unchanged
• Markets currently price in around a 40% chance of a deeper cut to the deposit rate of 20bps
• Focus will be on any potential complimentary easing measures alongside expected rate reductions
• ECB staff economic projections will likely reflect the downbeat prospects for the Eurozone economy

INTRODUCTION

Will outgoing ECB president Mario Draghi's "swan song" decision - the one in which he is widely expected to cut rates deeper into negative territory and resume sovereign and/or corporate QE - be a bazooka or a waster pistol? That's the question.

Markets currently fully price in a 10bps reduction in the deposit rate to -0.5% with just over a 40% chance of a deeper cut of 20bps.

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EU Bank Bosses Warn Of "Grave Consequences" If ECB Keeps Cutting Rates

The ECB's imposition of negative interest rates have created an "absurd situation" in which banks don't want to hold deposits, rages UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, arguing that this policy is hurting social systems and savings rates.

Ermotti is not alone. As European bank bosses cast their eyes at their share prices, they are fighting back, some have said - biting the hand that feeds, in their attack on ECB policies, warning of severe consequences to asset prices and the broader economy.

As Bloomberg reports, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing warned that more monetary easing by the ECB, as widely expected next week, will have “grave side effects” for a region that has already lived with negative interest rates for half a decade.

“In the long run, negative rates ruin the financial system,” Sewing said at the event, organized by the Handelsblatt newspaper.

Another cut “may make refinancing cheaper for states, but has grave side effects.”

While incoming ECB head Christine Lagarde has claimed that the benefits of deeply negative rates outweigh the costs (stating just this week that “a highly accommodative policy is warranted for a prolonged period of time;" few economists believe another cut at this level would actually help the economy. According to Sewing, all it would achieve is to further divide society by lifting asset prices while punishing Europe’s savers who are already paying 160 billion euros ($176 billion) a year because of negative interest rates.

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Which Countries Are The EU's Biggest 'Takers' (And 'Givers')

The question of which countries are paying more in EU contributions than they are getting out is a contentious issue for some and was also one major factor in the Brexit vote in the UK.

In the 2017 budget, there were ten EU members contributing more than they got out of the EU, at least in terms of direct monetary contributions. As Statista's Katharina Buchholz notes, UK came in second place in the ranking, with roughly 7.5 million euros of net contributions. Germany, topping the ranking, put in 12.8 billion euros more than it got out.

Poland was the biggest monetary benefactor from the EU, coming out with 8.2 billion euros earned, far ahead of Greece (3.7 billion euros) and Romania (3.4 billion euros).

But being on top of this list doesn’t have to send a country scrambling to leave the political union. In Germany, for example, support for the EU is high. While budget contributions might outweigh direct financial benefits for the country, a study by the Bertelsmann foundation suggests that the single EU market increased the average incomes of Germans by over 1,000 euros, above the EU average increase of 840 euros.

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Why A 100bps ECB Rate Cut Would Crush European Banks

Last week, when observing the ongoing drop  in both Wells Fargo's Net Interest Margin...

... as well as the broad decline in Net Interest Income across all US banks as rates continue to drop...

... we warned that this is an early warning of just how the upcoming Fed rate cuts will cripple US banks.

But if US banks are about to get hit, then European banks, which are already in purgatory courtesy of five years of negative rates coupled with both public and private QE, may enter the 9th circle of hell as soon as Thursday, when the ECB previews what may be a 20bps rate cut in September with or without more QE.

While the disastrous performance of European bank stocks since the financial crisis has been extensively discussed, with the European banking sector trading on the edge of support, beyond which nothing good awaits...

... it would be ironic if it is none other than the ECB which tips European bank stocks to new all time lows.

The reason for that is that, as Goldman recently calculated, further rate cuts are "a very uncomfortable prospect" for the sector, and an indicative -20bps rate cut could lead to an aggregate €5.6bn (-6%) profit cut for the 32 Euro banks under Goldman coverage, with 12 banks facing an >10% EPS cut, and 5 banks >20%. Worse, if Draghi were "forced" to cut rates further still, by say -100bp, one quarter of European banks would turn loss making or break-even, and 75% would not meet their cost of capital, according to Goldman calculations.

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Goodbye Dollar, It Was Nice Knowing You!

Well the worm has finally turned, maybe. Even the feckless Angela Merkel’s Germany now understands that national interests must prevail when the United States is demanding that it do the unspeakable. At the recently concluded G20 meeting in Tokyo Britain, France and Germany announced that the special trade mechanism that they have been working on this year is now up and running. It is called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex) and it will permit companies in Europe to do business with countries like Iran, avoiding American sanctions by trading outside the SWIFT system, which is dollar denominated and de facto controlled by the US Treasury.

The significance of the European move cannot be understated. It is the first major step in moving away from the dominance of the dollar as the world’s trading and reserve currency. As is often the case, the damage to US perceived interests is self-inflicted. There has been talk for years regarding setting up trade mechanisms that would not be dollar based, but they did not gain any momentum until the Trump Administration abruptly withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran over a year ago.

There were other signatories to the JCPOA, all of whom were angered by the White House move, because they believed correctly that it was a good agreement, preventing Iranian development of a nuclear weapon while also easing tensions in the Middle East. Major European powers Germany, France and Great Britain, as well as Russia and China, were all signatories and the agreement was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council. The US withdrawal in an attempt to destroy the “plan of action” was therefore viewed extremely negatively by all the other signatories and their anger increased when Washington declared that it would reinstate sanctions on Iran and also use secondary sanctions to punish any third party that did not comply with the restrictions on trade.

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CEO Of Germany's 2nd Largest Bank: In A Few Years We Will Notice The ECB's Experiment Was A Historical Mistake

“The cultural level of a nation is mirrored by its rate of interest: the higher a people’s intelligence and moral strength, the lower the rate of interest.” Thus declared economist Eugen von Böhm Bawerk, according to Richard Sylla and Sidney Homer’s classic tome A History of Interest Rates. By that logic, Europe is the domain of superhumans, as the overnight deposit rate has resided below zero since June 2014 and at negative 40 basis points since March 2016.

The M.D. overseeing Europe’s monetary affairs has his own version of the Hippocratic Oath.  Speaking at the ECB’s annual forum at the resort town of Sintra, Portugal today, ECB president Mario Draghi made waves by suggesting the central bank will impose still lower interest rates:

Further cuts in policy interest rates and mitigating measures to contain any side effects remain part of our tools. . . Negative rates have proven to be a very important tool in the euro area.

In the absence of improvement, such that the sustained return of inflation to our aim is threatened, additional stimulus will be required.

The implications are clear. Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told Bloomberg: “Draghi is going to finish his tenure [set to end on Oct. 31] with a cut. The door is now open and I don’t see how they can not walk through it.” Mike Riddell, fund manager at Allianz Global Investors, noted: “The ECB has just handed the bond bulls an ammunition dump.”

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European Equities May Benefit As $1 Trillion In U.S. Buybacks Vanish Into Thin Air

European equities may start to finally see some love, as they are now positioned to take advantage of one significant coming tailwind from the U.S., according to Bloomberg. Over the next 12 months, US stocks are going to lose a significant amount of support that they have received from buybacks, as the nearly $1 trillion buyback bonanza that has fueled stock purchases in the United States starts to come to an end, according to Sanford C. Bernstein strategists.

This could be an area where European stocks, due to their low dependence on buybacks, could see help as a result.

Bernstein strategists led by Inigo Fraser-Jenkins said:

 “This would remove one advantage of U.S. equities over Europe. As the buyback support is reduced it will make a stronger relative case for Europe.”

And the decision of the U.S. central bank to hold off on rate increases may have temporarily reduced concerns about debt hurting equities, but the topic is still on the table and credit spreads are expected to keep widening over the next year.

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Nearly Everyone Is A Socialist Now - Just The Way The Elites Want It

The expansionary phase of the global economy is almost certainly ending. A combination of excessive debt and trade protectionism is likely to become economically and politically destabilising. If, as seems increasingly likely, the world is destined for another credit and economic crisis, the colour of the political establishment will shape outcomes. This article examines the political scene and concludes that socialist puppet-masters will use the opportunity in an attempt to crush capitalism.

In 1975, I watched from the Strangers’ Gallery the debate in the House of Commons when the Referendum Act for membership of the Common Market was in its second reading. It was to be the first referendum ever held in the UK, and as one would imagine was contentious for that reason. The Labour government of the day had laid an act before Parliament for a referendum to ratify the European Communities Act of 1972, in other words, the UK’s membership of the Common Market.

The debate was not about membership, but the precedent of holding a referendum and its potential to undermine parliament’s sole right to take decisions on behalf of the people. In those days, MPs made proper speeches, not the time-limited five or so minutes permitted by Mr Speaker. A debate of this sort was worth listening to.

I was struck by the similarities of argument put forward by the two greatest parliamentary orators of the day. Michael Foot was the doyen of the extreme left in the Labour Party, and Enoch Powell was said to be on the extreme right (he wasn’t – he was a staunch free marketeer: more on this to follow). From their different perspectives their arguments were almost identical, and both spoke eloquently without notes.

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European Markets Sink On Italian Fears, China Surges After GDP Miss; S&P Futs Flat

After another turbulent week for markets, which saw violent reversals in US stocks which soared on Tuesday on the back of the biggest short squeeze since the Trump election only to tumble on Thursday on a combination of fears about the hawkish Fed, Chinese margin calls, the Italian standoff with the EU, and concerns about slowing profits, Friday has so far been a relatively quiet session with US equity futures fading the initial move higher and trading close to unchanged.

Markets in Europe were far more downbeat, with the Stoxx 600 falling as much as 0.6% around 6am ET, retreating for a third session in a row...

... with the auto sector down 2.8%, while renewed concerns about Rome's showdown with Brussels over the 2019 budget sent Italy's FTSE MIB to a 19-month low, down 1.6%, and Italian bond yields to new multi year highs as EU nations warned Italy’s populist government its budget won’t fly, with signs of contagion apparent as yields on Spain’s 10-year bonds climb to the highest level since October 2017.

The European auto sector was the biggest loser as the stoxx autos & parts index tumbled after Michelin issued a warning of declining 2H sales in Europe and China,

The latest weekly flow data showed that European equity funds suffered outflows of $4.8b in week ending Oct. 17, the biggest redemption in 27 weeks, and bringing the year-to-date outflows now at $50.4bn.

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The Inevitable De-Industrialization Of Europe

EU ministers agreed to binding cuts in CO2 emissions of 35% by 2030. The German auto industry won't be able to deliver.

The Telegraph reports Berlin court orders German capital to ban most diesel vehicles on 11 major roads to counter pollution.

Hamburg was first in May. Stuttgart, home of Mercedes and Porsche, was second in July.

A diesel ban in Frankfurt came third.

Only older cars that do not meet emission standards are banned, but diesel is now toxic. No one wants to buy diesel.

Merkel Can No Longer Protect Car Makers

Adding to the woes, Merkel has lost control. She is no longer able to protect German industry.

The European Parliament just voted to cut CO2 emissions by 40%. The European ministers voted for a 35% reduction. The latter is binding.

Car sales dropped sharply in September.

Eurointelligence on Autos and German Industry

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Italian Stocks, Bonds Collapse After EU Rejects Rome's Budget Plans

Italian stocks tumbled with the FTSE MIB dropping 2.3% - the worst performer among major European markets on Monday - and hitting its lowest level since April 2017, while the country's bonds plunged to the lowest level since February 2014 amid what now appears to be an inevitable showdown between Italy and the EU, after the European Commission said Italy’s budget plans are in breach of common rules.

Over the weekend, the European Commission told Italy it is concerned about its budget deficit plans for the next three years since they breach what the EU asked the country to do in July, but a defiant Rome insisted on Saturday it would “not retreat” from its spending plans.

In a letter to Italy’s Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, the Commission said that with a planned headline deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP in 2019, Italy’s structural deficit, which excludes one-offs and business cycle effects, would rise by 0.8 percent of GDP. Under EU rules Italy, which has a public debt to GDP ratio of 133 percent and the highest debt servicing costs in Europe, should cut the structural deficit every year until balance.

“Italy’s revised budgetary targets appear prima facie to point to a significant deviation from the fiscal path” commonly agreed by European Union governments, EU Commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis and Pierre Moscovici wrote in a letter to Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria. “This is therefore a source of serious concern,” the commission’s finance chiefs said in their letter Friday responding to a note sent by Tria the day before.

“We call on the Italian authorities to ensure that the Draft Budgetary Plan will be in compliance with the common fiscal rules,” the letter added at the same time as the council of EU ministers asked Italy in July to reduce that structural deficit by 0.6% of GDP next year, which means the deficit would be 1.4 points off track, Reuters reported.

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The New Normal In Europe: Increasing Population, Decreasing GDP

Leading European politicians and economists argue that the influx of immigrants is an economic necessity.

Naturalization of foreigners implemented for the purpose of executing a re-population program (resembling the Sinicization of Tibet) has become a national policy in most European countries. Replacing the dying European population with workers from Africa and the Middle East is supposed not only to save national economies and support the pension systems but also to boost economic growth.

Basic economic indicators, however, show that the opposite is true.

A year ago The Economist wrote that migration is beneficial to the global economy.

The Gefira team has shown that economic immigrants are more frequently beneficiaries of social benefits, and are less professionally active than non-native Europeans.

Our analysis is also validated by the scientists from the University of Basel. The result is that indigenous Europeans have to provide for immigrants.

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"Now The Real Economic War Begins, With America And Europe Allied"

The US and EU account for over 50% of global GDP and have the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship, exchanging $1.1trln of goods and services annually; there’s no more integrated economic relationship on earth. One-third of world trade involves the US and EU - the US is humanity’s #1 customer, accounting for 18% of all imports, the EU is #2 at 15%.

Total US investment in the EU is 3x higher than its investment in all of Asia. EU investment in the US is 8x higher than its investment in India and China combined. The US and EU have 880mm people (12% of total population), $180trln of wealth (65% of global wealth) and own nearly all of humanity’s intellectual property.

To be sure, we have our differences, but heaven help this planet’s divided nations if we set those aside and seek material advantage.

“Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, when I was invited by the President to the White House, I had one intention: I had the intention to make a deal today,” announced Jean-Claude Juncker, camera’s clicking, a media whir, history in the making. “And we made a deal today,” continued the President of the European Commission, as a shockwave circled the planet.

You see, throughout Europe’s timeless saga, never had a single politician cut a real deal on behalf of the entire continent, though not through any lack of effort. Many fought to attain the power of a united Europe - the Romans, Charlemagne, the short Frenchman with an ulcer, Austria’s most famous Adolph. Juncker’s unlike them all. He’s a creature of Europe’s modern union, a concept born of utter exhaustion, profound weakness.

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EU Parliament Study: Central Bank Digital Currencies "Will Reshape Competition" In Crypto Market

A study on issues of competition in fintech, commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), was published July 20. It found that central bank-issued digital currencies could be a “remedy” for a lack of competition policy in the crypto sector:

“The arrival of permissioned cryptocurrencies promoted by banks, even by central banks, will reshape the current competition level in the cryptocurrency market, broadening the number of competitors.”

The study mentions cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as “technological and operational paradigms that are a source of disruption for the entire sector, including monetary policy and financial stability.” Other “disruptive and innovative applications” of new technologies include “AI, cloud computing, biometrics, digital identity, blockchain, cybersecurity, RegTech, internet of things (IoT), augmented reality.”

Private digital currencies are defined separately from central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDC), noting that the CBDCs differ by being based on a “conventional bilateral settlement with a trusted central party.”

According to the study, since closed cryptocurrency systems require a supervisory authority, central banks could be considering using “permissioned cryptocurrency systems” to “complement or substitute” the currencies already used.

The study claims that CBDCs “will reshape the current competition level in the inter-cryptocurrency market” by adding to the pool of competitors:

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EU Fines Google Record $5 Billion In Android Antitrust Probe

Shares of Google parent Alphabet are in the red on Wednesday morning as European Union antitrust regulators unveiled a record €4.3 billion ($5 billion) fine against the tech giant for allegedly anti-competitive practices related to Google's Android operating system. The wide-ranging probes into Alphabet have been a primary focus of Margrethe Vestager, the bloc's famously aggressive competition commissioner, since she was first appointed to the role in 2014.

Wednesday's fine follows a then-record 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) levied by Vestager last year over allegations that Google's search feature unfairly benefited its comparative-shopping service.

Of course, the size of the latest fine is certainly notable, and begs the question: Is the bloc using these fines to retaliate against the US tech industry and President Trump for his refusal to grant a permanent exemption to the EU from the US's tariffs on aluminum and steel imports? Like China, which is also employing similar "stealth" retaliatory measures, the bloc also has a massive trade surplus of roughly $150 billion with the US.

Others have speculated that the hefty fines and intense scrutiny are a result of resentments in the EU over the global dominance of the US tech industry. Bloomberg broke the story, and also pointed out that the expected fine is roughly equivalent to the annual contribution to the EU's budget made by the Netherlands.

The decision will bring the running total of fines levied against Alphabet to €6.7 billion, and could soon be followed by fines related to Google's online advertising contracts - the last of the three anti-trust probes against the company.

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European Powers Prepare To Ditch Dollar In Trade With Iran

While the White House’s frenzied anti-Iran campaign has entailed unprecedented attempts to twist the arms of the United States’ traditional European allies, the pressure may be backfiring – a reality made all the more clear by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s claims that Europe’s three major powers plan to continue trade ties with Iran without the use of the U.S. dollar.

The move would be a clear sign that the foremost European hegemons – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – plan to protect the interests of companies hoping to do business with Iran, a significant regional power with a market of around 80 million people.

Lavrov’s statement came as Trump insisted that European companies would “absolutely” face sanctions in the aftermath of Washington’s widely-derided sabotage of the six-party Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).  On May 8, the former host of NBC’s “The Apprentice” blasted the agreement and said that the U.S. would reinstate nuclear sanctions on Iran and “the highest level” of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Speaking in Vienna at the ministerial meeting of the JCPOA, Lavrov blasted the U.S. move as “a major violation of the agreed-upon terms which actually made it possible to significantly alleviate tensions from the point of view of the military and political situation in the region and upholding the non-proliferation regime.”  He added that “Iran was meticulously fulfilling its obligations” at the time that Trump destroyed the U.S.’ end of the agreement.

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Deutsche Bank's Troubles Raise Worries About The Future Of The Euro Zone

The euro banking sector is huge: In April 2018, its total balance sheet amounted to 30.9 trillion euro, accounting for 268 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro area. Unfortunately, however, many euro banks are in lousy shape. They suffer from low profitability and carry an estimated total bad loan exposure of around 759 billion euro, which accounts for roughly 30 per cent of their equity capital.

Share price developments suggest that investors have lost quite some confidence in the viability of euro banks’ businesses: While US bank stocks are up 24 per cent since the beginning of 2006, the index for euro-area bank stocks is still down by around 70 per cent. Perhaps most notably, ’Germany’s two largest banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, have lost 85 and 94 per cent, respectively, of their market capitalization.

With a balance sheet of close to 1.5 trillion euro in March 2018, Deutsche Bank accounted for around 45 per cent of German GDP. In international comparison, this an enormous, downright frightening dimension. It is mostly the result of the bank still having an extensive (though not profitable) footprint in the international investment banking business. The bank has already started reducing its balance sheet, though.

Beware of big banks — this is what we could learn from the latest financial and economic crises 2008/2009. Big banks have the potential to take an entire economy hostage: When they get into trouble, they can drag everything down with them, especially the innocent bystanders – taxpayers and, if and when the central banks decide to bail them out, those holding fiat money and fixed income securities denominated in fiat money.

Banking Risks

For this reason, it makes sense to remind ourselves of the fundamental risks of banking – namely liquidity riskand solvency risk –, for if and when these risks materialise, monetary policy-makers can be expected to resort to inflationary actions. In fact, to fend off these risks from materialising, central banks have committed themselves to pursuing chronically inflationary policies.

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ECB Preview: The Beginning Of The End Of QE?

With the surprisingly hawkish Fed out of the way, there's only the ECB left to round out this week's relentless barrage of news and events (the BOJ will be a big snooze). So, courtesy of RanSquawk, here is what to expect from Mario Draghi when he takes the microphone in Latvia (an odd place, considering the country's own central banker Ilmars Rimsevics has been barred over corruption charges) tomorrow at 8:30am when he may unveil the end of Europe's QE.

• Unanimous expectations for the ECB to leave its three key rates unchanged
• Will the ECB unveil its blueprint for winding down the PSPP or will they again ‘kick the can down the road’ to July?
• Questions likely to be raised on the Bank’s view surrounding the latest developments in Italian politics
• Macro projections likely to see oil prices curtail 2018 growth expectations whilst lifting inflation prospects

PREVIOUS MEETING: The Bank left their opening statement unchanged in what was a meeting ultimately void of fireworks with Draghi intent on fending off most questions from journalists by stating that the Bank did not discuss FX volatility, their June roadmap, monetary policy ‘per se’ or rising yields. On the economic front, Draghi stated that inflation remain subdued and is yet to show signs of an upward trend, whilst incoming data since the March meeting shows a moderation of growth.

ECB MINUTES: Markets were relatively unreactive to the latest ECB minutes which made little mention of discussions on the future path of monetary policy and instead focused on current economic performance. The account highlighted the views that the more pronounced weakening of demand cannot be ruled out, suggestions that the ECB was close to a sustained adjustment of inflation but most disagreed and that uncertainty over the outlook had increased.

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After Italy... Spain Risk Soars

Political risk in Europe was largely ignored in international markets because of the mirage of the so-called 'Macron effect', the ECB’s massive quantitative easing program, and a perception that everything was different this time in Europe added to the illusion of growth and stability.

However, a storm was brewing and the same old problems seen throughout the years in Europe were increasing.

In Italy, the shock came with an election that brought a coalition of extreme left and extreme right populists. Disillusion with the Euro was evident in Italy for years, as the economy continued to be in stagnation while debt soared. However, international bodies, mainstream analysts, and banks preferred to ignore the risk, instead continuing to announce impossible growth estimates for the following year and science-fiction banks’ profitability improvements.

Italy’s economic problems are self-inflicted, not due to the Euro. Governments of all ideologies have consistently promoted inefficient dinosaur “national champions” and state-owned semi-ministerial corporations at the expense of small and medium enterprises, competitiveness and growth, labor market rigidities created high unemployment, while banks were incentivized to lend to obsolete and indebted state-owned companies in their disastrous empire-building acquisitions, inefficient municipalities, as well as finance bloated local and national government spending. This led to the highest Non-Performing Loan figure in Europe.

Now, the new government wants to solve a problem of high government intervention with more government intervention. The measures outlined would imply an additional deficit of some €130bn by 2020 and shoot the 2020 Deficit/GDP to 8%, according to Fidentiis

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