The starting-point is typically structural change to the real economy – the unexpectedly rapid take off of emerging economies in the 1980s; the emergence of a new technology; the opening-up of new markets; or the implementation of comprehensive fiscal and regulatory reform.
This is particularly true with respect to the high level of underemployment among young people and in peripheral regions. Thus, while the euro area economy looks increasingly healthy on average, it becomes clear on closer inspection that a lot still remains to be done to move onto a sustainable, integrative path of prosperity.