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Although significant progress has been made in recent years in disconnecting from Russian energy supplies, major challenges remain in order for Europe to have a sustainable, secure and competitive energy system.

Today’s economic headlines are focusing on the devastating economic impact that the COVID-19 crisis is having on the labour market, businesses and households, and on the steps being taken by more than half the world’s governments and central banks to mitigate these effects. However, when everything passes, the changes that the current crisis is triggering more quietly and discreetly in many other aspects will become apparent. In this article, we focus on the changes that are likely to occur in the way we produce.

We are therefore heading towards a context with higher tariffs and in which, most likely, there will be some reconfiguration of global value chains in an attempt to compensate, insofar as possible, for the loss of attractiveness of the US market. Consequently, we are moving towards a world with greater fragmentation, lower economic growth and the risk of higher inflation.

After growing by 3.2% in 2024, in 2025 the economy is expected to continue to grow above the euro area average, supported by strong household consumption and the recovery of investment. The major geopolitical challenges and Europe’s weak growth represent the main risk factors.

Despite the reduction of the public deficit to around 2.8% of GDP, the Treasury’s funding needs remain high, with a projected net issuance of 60 billion euros. It will also have to deal with the end of reinvestments by the ECB and the impact of interest rates on public debt.

Trump’s decisive victory and the Republican majority in Congress have triggered a significant appreciation of the dollar against its peers (3% in the nominal effective exchange rate) and in particular against the euro (4% cumulative appreciation between 5 and 26 November). The scope of the policies announced during the campaign affects the outlook for the euro-dollar exchange rate, which we review in this article.

The latest available economic indicators suggest that the trends observed for much of 2024 remain in place as the year draws to a close: buoyancy and resilience in the US, weakness in the euro area due to the delicate situation in Germany and France, and a lack of momentum in the Chinese economy in the absence of decisive economic stimuli.

In these liquid times we are living in – in which a moderately stable economic and political environment has given way to a changing, unpredictable reality subject to continuous transformation – from time to time it is necessary to pause and reflect on the key trends for the near future. That is what we try to do every November in our Dossier on the annual outlook.

The coronavirus outbreak has made remote work popular and fuelled debate regarding its impact on society and our way of life. However, the concept of working from home is not new; in fact, it was the norm for a large number of workers until well into the 19th century.

We are entering the final stretch of the year following a summer marked by the Olympic Games in Paris and a brief episode of financial turbulence which was triggered, in part, by fears that the US economy could fall into recession. Those fears have been shown to be somewhat exaggerated and the global economy has seen a continuation of the trend of recent quarters, although the outlook for the final part of the year has weakened. The time has therefore come to adjust the economic and financial outlook scenarios with all the new information that has come to light in recent months.

The global economy continues to grow at different speeds in Q2. In the US, the labour market is beginning to show signs of moderation while inflation continues its slow downward trickle; Germany’s weakness conditions the euro area as a whole, and China’s economy faces a modest outlook for Q3.

After analysing the extent of the fiscal boost in Germany, Spain, France and Italy to counteract the COVID-19 crisis, we examine the following question: which countries have taken more efficient and better fiscal measures?