EC Economic forecast optimistic: underestimates deflation risk

Commenting on the European Commission’s winter economic forecasts, Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), said

“Commissioner Moscovici is right that recovery is modest, low and slow, and for too many people it is non-existent.”

“If anything the modest forecast is optimistic, and underestimates the risk of deflation and its negative impact on the economy.”

“Europe needs to take a new path. The investment plan and Quantitative Easing will help, but investment levels need to be increased and reforms need to focus on quality jobs, raising wages and improving skills.”

“Creating quality jobs must be the primary aim. Far from unemployment being mainly ‘structural’, as the Commission seems to believe, austerity and wage reforms have made unemployment considerably worse.”