IMF Staff Country Reports

This Selected Issues paper on Euro Area Policies underlies global rebalancing of accounts. From a growth-accounting perspective, slower growth in the capital-labor ratio seems to be the main driver behind the deceleration in labor productivity. The increase in bilateral trade was accompanied by a large bilateral EU trade deficit. China’s market share seems to have increased mainly at the expense of other East Asian countries. EU trade with China increased at more than twice the rate of total EU external trade, and China became the EU’s second largest trading partner.