Lagging Business Cycle Recovery in the Euro Area

The revival of global economic activity is gaining momentum. Next to the USA, the Japanese economy is for the first time showing signs of a sustained recovery with growth in the fourth quarter 2003 even exceeding that of the USA. The upward trend has so far hardly extended to the euro area; indeed, business expectations in German manufacturing have suffered a setback of late. Firms in Austria saw their current situation in February unchanged from the previous month, but were more upbeat on the short-term outlook.