Private investment as a share of the German economy has fallen since the mid-1990s. It stood at 21% of GDP at the time, and has stagnated below 18% of GDP since the 2008 crisis. After the post-reunification boom, construction slowed in the 2000s, and the investment downturn then spread to the rest of the economy.Since the crisis, German private investment has shifted away from equipment and toward... Lire la suite
A posted worker is an employee assigned temporarily by his or her employer to the territory of a Member State of the European Union other than the State in which he normally works and in which the employer is established. Unlike migrant workers-to whom the Community principle of free movement of persons applies-the posting of workers rests on the principle of free provision of services.France is t... Lire la suite
After a period of robust growth due to a catch-up effect until the mid-1990s, Italy experienced a sharper and earlier slowdown in labour productivity than its main partners. Italy was one of the European leaders in hourly labour productivity until the mid-1990s. This advantage has gradually narrowed. Today, Italian productivity is 20% below that of France and Germany.Italy's weak productivity perf... Lire la suite
In the United States, the financial crisis accelerated the decline in potential growth by about 0.7 points compared with 2003-2007. Most organisations estimate U.S. potential growth at 1.5-2.0% in 2016, down from a pre-crisis average of 2.5%.Approximately 40% of the observed decline in potential growth seems due to a lesser accumulation of capital stock. The sharp downturn in investment during the... Lire la suite
After remaining consistently above USD 100 per barrel from 2011 through mid-2014, oil prices have plummeted by more than 70% since the summer of 2014. The decline was initially attributed to a combination of weaker than expected global demand for crude oil and an abundant market supply. Since mid-2015 however, world oil demand has been essentially in line with expectations, and the drop appears mo... Lire la suite
In 2015, the world economy lost momentum. There were, however, strong geographic disparities. The advanced economies continued to expand, with the United States and United Kingdom posting a brisk performance. In the emerging economies, by contrast, the slowdown persisted. World activity is expected to recover by 2016 and accelerate in 2017, driven by the rebound of the emerging economies-after fiv... Lire la suite
Since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, world trade in goods and services has been struggling to regain its pre-crisis momentum. World trade growth averaged only 3% or so a year between 2012 and 2015, versus 6.7% a year between 2000 and 2008–a decrease due to weaker global economic growth and a decline in trade intensity of economic activity.Trade liberalisation and the increasing fragmentation of w... Lire la suite
Initial and continuing education play a decisive role in helping people to access the labour market by reducing unemployment risk and duration, and enabling them to obtain higher wages. In France, as in the other OECD countries, the rise in wage earnings procured by a higher-education degree greatly exceeds the cost of obtaining the degree (rate of return: 11.4%). Beyond the personal level, educat... Lire la suite
The IMF and the World Bank launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) in 1996, and supplemented it in 2005 with the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). The purpose of the HIPC Initiative was to organise massive relief of external public debt owed to the international financial community as a whole (international financial institutions, official bilateral creditors and p... Lire la suite
Since the introduction of the single currency in 1999, the fiscal policy of the euro area has consisted of the juxtaposition of national fiscal policies, largely irrespective of the overall economic conditions in the euro area. During preparations for the launch of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), a case was made for a coordinated approach to develop an appropriate fiscal policy at EMU level... Lire la suite