European rally should provesustainable

It is fashionable in the UK to be critical of many aspects of macroeconomic management in Continental Europe. Growth in the eurozone economies has slowed to a crawl, probably less than 1% this year, against an estimated 1.6% in the UK and more than 2% in the US. Forecasts for 2003 and beyond also imply a pedestrian outlook. The ECB is unfavourably compared with the Fed for its lack of credibility and its slowness in countering economic weakness, while politicians are increasingly regarded as ineffective and unhelpful to business. Not surprisingly, European equities are viewed in a sim...