Free Republic

It seems that the strong start to the year was another false dawn for the eurozone economy and that the European Central Bank will have more to do in the months ahead to shore up growth. New figures released Friday confirmed that the eurozone, which is made up of 19 countries from Ireland to the west to Cyprus in the east, suffered a sizable slowdown in the second quarter of the year despite a number of stimulus measures that the European Central Bank has thrown at it. In its first estimate for the April to June period, Eurostat, the EU’s...

Germany will get an early Christmas present of around €779 million from the EU, thanks to weaker than expected GDP growth. It will receive the rebate on its contributions to the European Union on December 1st, while Britain will have to pay €2.1 billion on the same day. “The British economy is growing much faster than the others, and the logic is the same as with tax: if someone earns more, they pay more tax,” EC spokesman Patrizio Fiorilli told AFP. …