Economic Growth GDP Comparison: Italy Essay

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8% in the fourth quarter of 2008.... [a]sharp slowdown in finance and insurance, a further contraction in construction, and a deceleration in durable-goods manufacturing were the leading contributors to the economic slowdown" (Overview of the U.S. Economy: Perspective from the BEA Accounts, 2009, BEA). Still, Europe is experiencing its worst economic downturn since the Second World War. Its more precipitous decline contradicts initial economic expectations that the European Union might be buffered from the crisis.

European home prices remained more durable than in the United States and European consumers have cut back less on their spending. The problem is that the European export industry has been suffering. While the more developed nations of Europe have taken more aggressive measures to inject capital into their economies and pursued more aggressive stimulus plans than the United States, poorer economies cannot afford to do so and still adhere to the policies of the European Union regarding the euro.

Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries are mounting billion-dollar stimulus plans and erecting fences to protect their banks" but the "peripheral economies" such as Italy "find themselves caught in an awful policy bind: credit is available, but only at punitive rates; and further borrowing not only breaks with European Commission dictates but raises broader questions about their solvency.
Bond and currency speculators have demonstrated that they intend to punish countries with dubious economic prospects, just as they have punished banks," and few EU countries have more dubious economic prospects at present than Italy (Thomas 2009).

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"Economic Growth GDP Comparison Italy", 19 February 2009, Accessed.7 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/economic-growth-gdp-comparison-italy-24703