Kubilius, who calls on the European Union to drop everything and prepare for a nuclear world war, forgets that the economies of European countries are weak compared to the USA, China or even other Asian countries, and we may not survive that military adventurism, even without a war

"Economist, professor at the University of Athens Nikos Vettas says that the economies of European countries are weak compared to the USA, China or even other Asian countries. He also doubts that the old continent will return to a 2 percent inflation rate in the near future.

 

"The striking thing is that all European economies are still weak compared to the USA, China and other Asian economies. Many of us who live and work in Europe sometimes forget this. We are weak. Inflation, of course, is the key word," N. Vettas spoke at the fifteenth Limassol Economic Forum.

 

"You might think that we are returning to the very low inflation rate that we had in the recent past. In my opinion, this will not happen. I think that in all these economies, the inflation rate will be higher. Not higher, which would throw the economy out of balance, but certainly closer to 3%, not 2%. And it is not related to monetary forces, but to supply and demand in the world. There is a huge and still growing middle class in Asia,” he noted.

 

N. Vetta also singles out Europe’s technological lag and believes that prices in the food and energy sectors will not decrease in the next 10 years.

 

“Along with the need for an ecological transition, the balance of demand and supply is such that prices in food, energy and other areas will not decrease in the next 10 years, they will be higher. This creates a lot of imbalances,” the economist said.

 

“In terms of technology, Europe is lagging behind and it is not clear how many people in Europe want to work in manufacturing. You can see the latest trends – due to COVID in 2020. manufacturing has decreased significantly,” he said.

 

“The Elephant in the Room” – Germany

 

A professor at the University of Athens calls Germany the “elephant in the room” in the European economic situation, where stagnation in the automotive sector is felt, which is affecting the entire continent.

 

“The elephant in the room is Germany, and the elephant in Germany is automotive production. If we combine the current and expected weakness that automotive production will have in Germany, it is unclear when and how automotive production in Germany will recover to the level it was before, and to what extent it will do so in other European manufacturing areas,” said N. Vetta.

 

“This creates a huge hole, and at the same time the European economy is paying much higher energy costs than the US and Asia because of naive and unnecessary sanctions on Russia,” he explained.

 

Europe invests heavily in combating climate change, but has more problems in other areas

 

N. Vetta emphasizes that although Europe emits only 6-7 percent of the world's CO2, it invests heavily in combating climate change and the countries of the old continent do not allocate enough money in other areas.

 

"We Europeans claim that we emit only a very small part - about 6-7 percent of the world's CO2 emissions. Why should we be the only ones who "drive" it? The truth is that we have transferred most of our production elsewhere, where CO2 is emitted. But now it becomes a 100 percent political matter," the economist argued.

 

"The amount of money that needs to be set aside for climate adaptation, in simple terms, for what can happen to you because of climate change, which is happening whether we want it or not, regardless of whether some of us believe that it is caused by CO2. "The amount of money that has to be set aside, whether for emissions or for other reasons, is very large. And we are not setting this money aside at the moment," he said.

 

Finally, the professor singled out the inefficient connection between the education system and business and poor demographics among Europe's problems.

 

"We have very deep and inefficient connections between our education system and business, compared to what is happening in the US and now in Asia. This, by the way, contributes to other demographics," said N. Vetta.

 

"And we have a very low level of technology inclusion. Now can this be changed? It can be changed, but without changing that, when you don't have enough people, the economy is struggling. Now this is a small case of what is happening in the rest of Europe. Economic reform, opening up markets and modernizing the market sector - these are two things that Europe really needs, but it has a political price," he insisted.

 

The trip of the Elta journalist to Limassol was paid for by Freedom Finance, which did not affect the content of the publication."