Economics
Europe’s Recovery Choices Will Leave It a Year Behind the U.S.
- EU’s fiscal program is groundbreaking but relatively small
- Intention is that the plans boost bloc's long-term potential
This article is for subscribers only.
While the U.S. rushes toward a blockbuster fiscal stimulus package to accelerate its recovery from the coronavirus crisis, much of Europe is pootling along in the slow lane.
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, if congressional leaders pass the full amount, would take his administration’s spending in 2021 to more than three times as much as euro-area countries have planned, according to UniCredit SpA.
As a consequence, most economists expect the U.S. economy to reach its pre-pandemic size around the middle of 2021, roughly a full year before the currency bloc.