Great Recession in Europe

WSJ assesses, in a dispatch from Athens and Berlin, that crisis-ridden Greece faces two years of more recession magnified by sharp budget cuts and reforms mandated by a last-minute 86-billion-euro bailout deal with international creditors.

The sharp decline in Russia's economy may have almost run its course, official data showed on July 28, slowed by a huge devaluation of the ruble and heavy government spending on anti-crisis measures. 

Recovery prospects are cloudy, however, with many analysts warning of a sluggish rebound at best. 

Time is running out for Greece to secure a bailout worth up to 86 billion euros over three years.. Bloomberg reports that an e-mail from the Greek Finance Ministry states that talks will start on Tuesday due to technical reasons. Delays in the talks could risk finding a solution for Greece’s funding by the August 20 deadline.

Greece's economic turbulence is dominating political debate in Spain ahead of a year-end general election, with the ruling conservatives pointing to Syriza's difficulties to discredit its Spanish ally Podemos.
 

The World Bank has said it would stick to its 3 percent growth forecast for Turkey this year, but cut its 2016 and 2017 growth forecasts to 3.5 percent, citing the uncertain political outlook after the June 7 parliamentary elections, in a brief note on July 1. 

Turkish business circles want to see the end of post-election uncertainties and express their concerns to politicians. Many of them are under huge debt burdens. Their biggest concern is the possibility of the non-establishment of any coalition government and entering a snap election period, which will both increase political risks.

Foreign pressures

 Of the 7.9 bln euros of measures submitted, 7.3 bln concerns taxation and social security contributions

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou & Sotiris Nikas

Minister of Finance Dusan Vujovic says the country's budget deficit in May was 1.6 percent of GDP and that he expects it to be two percent of GDP in June.

This amounts to RSD 40 billion.

According to the second estimate of Eurostat, which was released on Tuesday, Bulgaria's GDP growth surpassed the EU average in the first quarter of 2015.

The country's GDP in the first quarter of 2015 increased by 0.9 % compared to the previous quarter, while there was a 2 % growth compared to the same quarter in 2014.

It’s official, Greece remains in recession for yet another quarter, shrinking by 0.2 percent in the first three months of 2015.

However, as the SYRIZA government entered its fourth month of negotiations with international creditors in a desperate bid to resume funding, the rest of the Eurozone and EU-28 grew by 0.4 percent.