Macroeconomic policy / 'Economic Outlook'
The Economic Outlook is our twice-yearly review of recent economic developments and projection of future economic developments. It is based on input from our member federations across Europe.
The Spring 2023 edition highlights that falling energy prices through the mild winter have helped steer the EU economy away from recession, but the situation remains challenging for many companies. The EU economy has avoided recession, but many challenges remain.
More than half of our member federations view the overall business climate as generally better than the extremely uncertain outlook in the autumn. Energy prices and supply chain disruptions are declining, but companies, especially SMEs, continue to operate in a highly uncertain environment. In 2023, bankruptcy declarations reached the highest level in the last eight years.
The EU economy is forecasted to grow by 0.7% in 2023 (an upward revision of 0.1% from our Autumn forecast) and 1.6% in 2024. Euro area inflation rate is forecasted to gradually decline but to remain elevated at 5.4% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024.
