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business Tuesday 18 January 2022
Euro nations seek path between high inflation, weak growth

BRUSSELS (AP) — Euro fi- ing ahead with plans to
nance chiefs on Monday spend hundreds of billions
engaged in a high-wire of euros in unprecedent-
political balancing act ed EU funds raised to help
prompted by conflicting overcome the pandemic-
economic forces: a weaker induced slump.
growth outlook and stron- In parallel, some countries
ger inflation. including France are push-
Finance ministers from the ing for looser EU limits on na-
19 nations that share the tional debt to allow greater
common euro currency room for growth-boosting
pledged continued bud- public investments. This will
getary stimulus for the Eu- require concessions from
ropean economy amid Germany, a traditional de-
headwinds caused by the fender of budget austerity.
highly transmissible omicron "More prosperity is needed
variant. At the same time, for Europe," French Finance
they sought to reassure vot- Minister Bruno Le Maire said
ers by pledging vigilance on his way into the euro
over sharp price rises. gathering. "More growth is
"Am I concerned about needed."
inflation? Obviously so," In this context, employment
Dutch Finance Minister Sig- that she pays for fertilizers billions of euros of assets in Still, the predicted growth trends in Europe could play
rid Kaag told reporters in and insecticides jumped to financial markets. is higher than projections a key role for policymakers
Brussels before entering a alarmingly high levels in the Daniel Gros, a board mem- of a maximum 4% GDP ex- in coming months because
meeting with her euro zone second half of last year. ber of the CEPS think tank in pansion this year in the U.S., a tighter labor market can
counterparts. "The purchas- "This trend is very worrying," Brussels, said the ECB should where the central bank has lead to wage increases
ing power of the individual Orfanou told the AP. "It gets now act in a nuanced way warned about the eco- and, by extension, stronger
citizens will be affected." harder for small farmers to by ending the pandemic- nomic threats of inflation inflation.
The euro zone faces a slow- stay in business because induced asset buying while and signaled an imminent So far, the Commission has
down in economic growth we have limited room to holding its interest rates at tightening of monetary pol- cited persistent slack in Eu-
this year after a solid re- pass on the cost increases the current ultra-low levels. icy. ropean labor markets and
covery in 2021 from a se- to average consumers." "The economic emergency By contrast, ECB officials in- predicted the euro-area
vere coronavirus-induced Such sentiments have caused by the coronavirus cluding President Christine jobless rate will fall to 7.5%
recession two years ago. helped spark questions is over and there is a dan- Lagarde have indicated in 2022 from 7.9% in each of
But surging inflation, which about the European Cen- ger, albeit probably a small they are in no rush to raise the previous two years.
reached a record 5% in De- tral Bank's policy of keep- one, of euro-area inflation interest rates, arguing that But Greek farmer Orfanou
cember and is tied to an ing the euro zone money staying too high for lon- euro-area inflation will fall offered a potential warning
energy-market squeeze, supply loose to fuel eco- ger," Gros said Monday by back to the bank's 2% tar- on this front, saying she has
has complicated the pic- nomic activity. phone. get in due course. also faced demands from
ture — for both policymak- The Frankfurt-based ECB The euro region's gross do- The EU Commission has seasonal workers for higher
ers and voters. has offered support in two mestic product is projected predicted a further slow- pay.
Ioanna Orfanou, a small- key ways: maintaining its by the European Commis- ing of euro-area economic "They cited the rising infla-
scale producer of olives interest rates at zero or less sion to expand 4.3% in 2022 growth in 2023 to 2.4%. tion and took advantage
and pomegranates along and helping to keep other after estimated 5% growth While the growth outlook is of a sudden shortage in the
the central-eastern coast market borrowing costs low last year and a 6.4% con- weaker, national govern- supply of such workers in
of Greece, said the prices by purchasing hundreds of traction in 2020. ments in Europe are press- Greece," Orfanou said.q

Pandemic hasn't slowed China's love for US lobster

By PATRICK WHITTLE Associ- American exporters sent jing because of COVID-19
ated Press more than 13.2 million restrictions — but they are
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — pounds (6 million kilograms) able to send to other air-
China is showing no signs of lobster to China during ports, such as Shenzhen.
of slowing its demand for the first 11 months of 2021. "Chinese New Year is al-
American lobster this year That was about 6% more ways a crapshoot the last
despite disruption to the than the same time period couple years," Bruns said.
supply chain and interna- the previous year. "But I'm prepared for it. I
tional trade caused by the The pandemic has made have the staff. Because
coronavirus pandemic. the already difficult task of otherwise it's going to be a
Chinese demand for the sending live seafood across long spring."
crustaceans grew dramati- the globe more challeng- China buys lobsters from
cally during the 2010s in ing, but Maine lobster ex- the U.S. — where the indus-
part because of the expan- porters are gearing up for try is based mostly in Maine
sion of the country's middle a decent Chinese New — and Canada, where
class. The lobsters are espe- Year, said Bill Bruns. The op- the industry is situated in John Sackton, an indus- seafood could also get a
cially sought after in winter erations manager at The the Atlantic provinces. Ex- try analyst and founder of boost from the Beijing Win-
because they are a popu- Lobster Co. in Arundel said ports from Canada were SeafoodNews.com. ter Olympics, which are
lar delicacy on Chinese shipments are complicated up even more than the U.S. Signs point to a strong sea- set to start a few days af-
New Year, which is Feb. 1 by the fact the company the first 11 months of 2021 son for the industry, Sack- ter Chinese New Year, he
this year. can't send lobsters to Bei- compared to 2020, said ton said. Consumption of said.q