Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES have posted a combined surplus of €32.6 billion in the second quarter of the year mostly thanks to Germany’s all-powerful export industries.
The total current account surplus for the EU’s 28 member states was up from the €8.1 billion recorded in the first three months of 2014, but down from the €40.9 billion registered for the same time last year.
Within the troubled eurozone, the current account surplus was even higher – €60.5 billion for the three months, or roughly 2.5% of the region’s GDP.
Germany alone recorded a surplus of €46.3 billion, followed by the Netherlands with €15.6 billion and Italy with €6.1 billion, according to the latest Eurostat figures.
Ireland’s current account surplus for the three months was €2.9 billion.
At the other end of the spectrum, the UK had the biggest deficit at €25.5 billion with France’s €11.4 billion deficit the next largest.
Why should we care about all this current-account stuff?
Put simply, a current account surplus means that a country is saving more than it spends internally – and is therefore a net lender to other nations.
Big exporters like China and Germany consistently have trade surpluses while some major economies like the US, which has been running current account deficits since 1992, are heavily reliant on foreign investment to keep them ticking over.
But Germany has recently come under fire from the US Treasury, the IMF and other quarters for its export-driven approach, which has been blamed for dragging down eurozone economies by fuelling “anaemic” domestic demand.
In a report last year, the US agency said: “The net result (of Germany’s policy) has been a deflationary bias for the euro area, as well as for the world economy.”
Economic growth with the eurozone has been virtually non-existent and there are fears the region could slip into recession again as the region’s three biggest economies, Germany, France and Italy, have all struggled with negative or stagnant figures.
But Germany has so far been resisting pressure to abandon its austerity approach in the face of the economic headwinds.
Meanwhile, the ECB plans to go on a spending spree, buying up debts to push more money into the struggling region and hopefully stimulate widespread growth.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It never ceases to amaze me that a Church founded by the Son of God, based on Love, was represented and run by humans who showed so little love to vulnerable children and their vulnerable mothers.
@Neil Neart: true but then if there were no mother and baby homes run by the church then so many women in difficult situations and shunned by their own families would of had no where to go to at all.
@lorcmulv: tell that to the babies toss into septic tanks.
@lorcmulv: You appear to be ignoring the reasom why those girls and women were shunned.
@Felicity Hensen: it’s a chicken and egg story. Families offloaded their “odd” sons and daughters to hide the family shame. These sons and daughters became priests and nuns.
@lorcmulv: without the eviI distortion of human behaviour and the indoctrination by the Catholic Church there would be no need for such homes. Being an unmarried mother would hold no stigma. It’s only the inhumane brainwashing done by power greedy clergy that caused about 50% of all misery on this planet (if not more).
@lorcmulv: The morality of the times came from the Church. Terrified pregnant young girls, carrying tiny grandchildren, were shunned and rejected and treated as manifestations of mortal sin because the Church told society that that is what they were. A largely uneducated population, fearful of losing access to Heaven for eternal life with God believed the Church’s teachings on morality and shunned their own lovely daughters and grandchildren. Yet the Church still exists in spite of hundreds of years of shameful leadership, cover ups and abuse. Astonishing.
@lorcmulv: Starved, bullied and beaten? Many men and women couldn’t get their child back from such institutions although they had worked hard to be in a position to support them. Those places took the children on for the support money. I’m sure inspectors didn’t witness the half of the needless cruelty and hunger, and they were well paid while the children had to manage with as little as possible.
That was heartbreaking to read, especially the part about Monique’s father looking for her – evening going to her school – and being willing to look after her when she was born. It was lovely that he spoke about her openly to his own family and didn’t treat her like a shameful secret. He sounded like a wonderful man. What a tragedy they never met.
@FrustratedASDMum: Yes, wasn’t it? I’m so glad that she found her sister, and that at least went well for her. So many official obstacles and lies to get beyond. I’m so sorry for her painful losses and well done to her for persisting. I hope better disclosure is possible for others who were adopted under a different name. DNA kits are reuniting so many people in our lifetimes. Wishing her and her handsome family all the best in the future.
The State and Churches have so much answer for none are innocent. Especially the Churches in every way.
@Mick McGuinness: and society as a whole
It’s the same for donor-conceived people. So many records destroyed, so many people looking for these parts of their family, so many having doors shut in their faces. It’s awful. We have a lot in common with adoptees yet legislation is still not properly child centred nor retroactive as it has been for adoption.
A lot of girls were r.a.p.e.d by family, or people in higher power. Hitting the toxic red now. A few full stops madness.
I think nowadays it’s easier to find Family. Just do a DNA test and some relatives are bound to pop up, then you can ask them to put you in touch with others in the Family or at least let them know you’re looking for them. Ancestry have special offers on around St. Patrick’s day as well as other times and it’s not too expensive anyway.
@Margaret Doyle: Christmas sales on DNA kits at the moment!
4th paragraph: “… some 56,000 femaIes and 57,000 children …”
Seriously? FemaIes? How about calling us “women”? Because that’s what we are. ls this the new PC regime? Men are caIIed men, but women are caIled femaIes?
Apart from that, it’s mind boggIing that in this country the cathoIic church stiII is aIIowed to have anything to do with vuInerable peopIe such as chiIdren or sick or eIderly. The government needs 2 start protecting its peopIe from the greedy cIaws of that criminaI sect.
Sorry for the odd way of spelling. Toxicology filter etc.
@Babs Ruch: you can hardly call 12 and 13 year old girls “women “
The reality is that most Irish adoptees get very little information over the course of their lives and the religious orders are notoriously tight lipped. The few reunions seen in the media from time to time are often called reunion porn by activists as they don’t reflect the reality for most adoptees.
I don’t know what in that story that in anyway is critical of the religious orders, and yet the author finds it understandable that people would hate them? The adoption system was/is run by the state under formal laws which they were only abiding by and, as unmentioned here, the truth is that many of these children would have been aborted if it wasn’t for the help they got from these Orders?
Its fascinating as well the story of the father trying to hold onto the child, in Ireland as well fathers have absolutely no rights in this regard, but plenty of responsibilities!
Anyway just to reply to a commentator above, there was no corpses thrown into septic tanks, you can read about all that here if you like: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/108089 .
have your say