The third point on my European to-do list is to improve coordination in other areas of economic policy. To effectively tackle the divergent competitiveness in the euro area, all member states must play their part. Less productive economies need to implement reforms and investments that increase their productivity and competitiveness. This has obvious benefits for exports, economic growth and employment.
And it decreases the productivity gap with more productive economies. These reforms are, however, more likely to succeed if the stronger economies also do their fair share. Large and persistent trade surpluses often hide underlying problems, such as corporate savings retained for tax reasons, or stagnant wage growth.