Economic growth has been uneven and patchy, and financial concerns keep recurring, with waves of positive and negative sentiment sweeping global markets. Australians feel the effects of those swings in sentiment. Meanwhile, the emerging world continues to expand, and it is not all due simply to exports to the rich world, even though the world could still do with some more re-balancing.
Indeed, price competitiveness has been gaining momentum from 2012 onwards as the inflation differential with Greece’s main trading partners has been negative. Its cumulative improvement from 2009 to 2015 is estimated at 12.1%. Its improvement for 2015 is estimated at 4.5% by the Bank of Greece or 5.1% by the ECB (Harmonised Competitiveness Indicators (HCIs)) (Figure 6).