MNI BRIEF: Rate Changes Affect Eurozone More Than US Firms-ECB
Monetary policy has affected business investment more in the eurozone than in the U.S. in recent years while the reverse is true for housing investment, the European Central Bank said in its Economic Bulletin on Wednesday.
In a paper examining why the U.S. has grown about 5% faster than the eurozone in the four years from Q4 2019, the ECB pointed to lower fiscal support in the eurozone for private consumption and stressed the impact of higher energy costs following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The growth differential and productivity gap will narrow in the coming years, the paper said, noting that U.S. monetary shocks have a high impact on the euro area financial conditions while the converse is less true. (See MNI INTERVIEW: US Productivity Boom Can Mask Price Pressures)