Important Eurozone Economic Indicators
Background information on the Eurozone
The Eurozone is also referred to as the Euro Area and was officially formed in 1999. It is an economic monetary union encompassing an agreement between 18 countries which belong to the European Union. These member countries have officially adopted the Euro as their common currency and as such use this as their only legal tender within their countries.
The Eurozone member states include:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Cypress
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Slovakia
- Slovenia and
- Spain
Besides these countries, there are also other states that have gotten permission to use the euro as their official currency and can issue their own currency. Such countries include Monaco, Vatican City, San Marino and Andorra. Additionally, there are those that have adopted the euro without formally joining the Eurozone. These include Montenegro and Kosovo.
The Eurozone is basically governed by the European Central Bank (ECB). It has a total of 18 members with a population of 332,839,084. This monetary union had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 9.5 trillion Euros in 2012. For the past two years, the union has experienced a growth of 1.56% every year in its GDP.
Currently, the Euro zone is headed by Jeroen Dijsselbloem who is the group president. The ECB on the other hand is headed by Mario Draghi. To date the Eurozone is considered an economic entity with many indicators affecting it.
Economic indicators of the Eurozone
- GDP growth rate. The GDP for the Eurozone in 2012 stood at $12,212.83 billion. This figure grew to $12,749.93 billion in 2013. There have been positive predictions about these figures with many analysts predicting a growth in the GDP rate of the euro area. The average annual growth rate of the monetary union is between 0.7% and 1.56%.
- Unemployment rate. As at 2014, unemployment rate in the Eurozone stood at 11.5%. Currently there are 146.09 million employed persons within the zone and 18,409 unemployed persons. The percentage of youth who are unemployed on a monthly basis is 23% while the long term unemployment rate in 2014 was 6.3%.
- Inflation rate. The inflation rate within the monetary union was 0.30% in august 2014while the consumer price index dropped from 118.31 to 117.54.
- Interest rate. Interbank interest rate decreased from 0.24% to 0.20% in 2014. The average monthly interest rate is 0.05%
- Balance of trade. By June 2014, the Eurozone had a trade surplus of 16,808 million Euros. This was an improvement from 15,400 million Euros. Generally, the exports from the Eurozone were worth 162,197 million Euros while the imports during this period were worth 145,388 million Euros.
There is a sense of improvement in the Eurozone and many analysts predict that this monetary union will improve in the near future. A reduction in the high rates of unemployment can help to improve the economy of this area.
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References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurozone
http://fxwords.com/e/economic-reports-from-the-euro-zone.html#Balance of Payments
http://fxwords.com/t/trade-balance-euro-zone.html
http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Issues/Business-environment/EUROZONE-FORECAST