European economies’ recovery "not bad at all", EU President says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ailing European economies are getting their houses in order and the euro remains a trustworthy currency, the European Union's president said Wednesday, May 18, describing the region's recovery as "not bad at all."

"Newspaper headlines might sometimes overshadow that the economic recovery in Europe as a whole is on track and even gaining momentum in some member states," Herman Van Rompuy said in a speech to the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.

"Our economic fundamentals remain sound," he said.

While forecast European growth rates of 1.8 percent this year and 2.0 percent in 2012 may appear modest compared with China's near 10 percent pace, they reflect the maturity and prosperity of the region's economies.

"It is really not bad at all," he said.

All 27 EU members are reducing their fiscal deficits, Van Rompuy said. And although Europe is still muddling through bailouts of Greece and Ireland and working out arrangements to stabilize Portugal, those countries account for only 7 percent of the gross domestic product of the world's largest combined economy.

"The members of weak economies have to do their homework and have to put their houses in order and that is what they are doing," Van Rompuy said.

Regardless of the challenges all governments face in bringing their deficits and debts under control, "the euro remains a "very strong currency trusted by investors worldwide," Van Rompuy said.

He also defended the U.S. dollar, saying that challenges to its dominant role in world finance and trade crop up each time it weakens, but are premature even though the Chinese currency is bound to eventually take on a more important role, the Associated Press reported.