The economic evidence shows Germany still provides the best example of how to run an economy, says Investec's Philip Shaw, despite a recent stutter. LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (APRIL 02, 2013) (REUTERS) - INVESTEC CHIEF ECONOMIST, PHILIP SHAW, (QUESTION: Alright. Germany aside, is there anything there that you as an economist, can get your teeth into and say look, we're going in the right direction, this is progress, these green shoots could turn into something?) Well in terms of economic news, I think the answer has to be no. Two or three months ago, we were looking at perhaps a little bit of a bottoming out of some of the shorter term indicators. But certainly what we've seen in February and March and so far in April hasn't been particularly encouraging with if anything that the survey's weakening. What we do have is the financial indicators have got better since last summer. Particularly encouraging was the limited reaction in European markets to what's been happening in Italy and Cyprus over the past couple of months which suggests that at least, we're not going to get a big tightening in credit conditions. But on the economic side, no progress, I'm afraid." |
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