Peripheral euro economies beat growth expectations

European peripheral countries such as Portugal are growing faster than they would had they not signed up to the euro, says Nick Thomas, investment manager at Baillie Gifford. Thomas says this is the reverse of expectations of the post-euro situation, when it was predicted Germany would take a central role in tightening the fiscal policies of these countries. Rather, it is now Germany that has big economic problems because of the fiscal limitations imposed on it with the introduction of the euro. Thomas says the cap imposed on countries' ability to control their own interest rates ...