Initially investors believed that the brewing US subprime mortgage disaster could not significantly harm the Euro. This prediction turned out to be completely wrong. The fiasco had a knock-on effect across the world's economy, but it was EU member Greece that sucked the rest of the Eurozone in to prolonged crisis. In less than 2 years the dollar value of the Euro dropped from $1.47 to $1.25. Desperate measures to stop the decline, including altering interest rates, could not change investors' minds once panic had set in. And today rather than dream of recovery, some people are actively betting on the Euro's decline and cashing out with the British pound. The Euro now sits at an all time low of $1.05 in US dollar value.
Indeed, despite most developed nations taking a hit during the recession, it is the Eurozone that are lagging behind in recovery. On average outsider countries have seen growth of 29% compared to the EU's 14%. Experts believe one of the contributing factors to the none-recovery was the European Central Bank's use of Quantitative Easing (QE) as an attempt to get out of debt. QE is essentially the printing of new money that is issued to financial institutions in hope that they loosen up the reins and begin lending again. This in turn allows businesses and individuals to invest and spend the economy back in to growth. However, the downside of issuing new money is that all existing money is devalued. Because the more of something there is, the less it is worth.
However, it is still Greece that arguably remains the EU's biggest mistake. Their failure is spread across the whole Eurozone, bringing every member economy down. Economist DeAnne Julius wants to remove Greece entirely from the equation, while Paul De Grauwe of the LSE thinks their debt should simply be written off. For all the numbers charting the Euro's decline and a closer look at member state performance, check out the following infographic: coupofy
Infographic by: coupofy.com