Too Early to Tell Whether Euro Area Recession is Over
Saturday, October 19, 2013
The Euro Area Business Cycle Dating Committee of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) met in Paris on 9 October 2013. The decision of the Committee to convene was prompted by positive news stemming from a variety of sources (the European Commission, statistical agencies, forecasting institutions, international organizations, NowCasting.com) about economic activity in the euro area. The objective of this meeting was to determine whether there was enough evidence that the decline in economic activity that started after third quarter of 2011 had ended. The Committee decided that, while it is possible that the recession ended, neither the length nor the strength of the recovery is sufficient, as of 9 October 2013, to declare that the euro area has come out of recession.