The economic performance of the euro area since the mid-1990s Let me start with an assessment of the euro area’s economic performance by: first recalling a few general facts, then, analysing the euro area labour market and labour productivity performance in more detail.
As I already mentioned, over the period from 1996 to 2005, euro area output grew on average by about 1.3 percentage points less than in the US, and the gap appears to be persistent 3 . 1  The Ludwig Erhard Memorial Lecture on “Economic and Monetary Union: a German perspective” by Dr Hans Tietmeyer. Lecture held at the LSE on February 18, 1992.