Spain's economy grew at 1% rate in the second quarter of 2015 and 3.1% on the same quarter in 2014 but the International Monetary Fund has warned that the recovery is likely to slow in the next few years after an expected GDP (gross domestic product) rise of 3.1% by the end of 2015.

Italy's Mezzogiorno region covering the southern half of the Italian peninsula combined with the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, is the Achilles heel of the Euro Area and it has some of the worst economic metrics in the European Union, including the lowest birth rate since 1862 when Italy had a total population of 22m (this number comes from Istat, the national statistics office. 26m is also cited elsewhere) compared with 59m today.

The Euro Area economy grew a weak 0.3% in the second quarter, Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, reported in its first estimate published on Friday.

The German economy continues to grow. In the second quarter of 2015, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.4% on the first quarter of the year after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. France's GDP stagnated in the period.

Germany's Surplus: There are many critics of Germany's trade and current account surpluses but credible solutions are scarce.

Euro Area industrial production fell in June and May after a flat April, signalling the fragility of the current recovery.

Greece faces two years of recession as it implements budget cuts and tax rises that are required by its latest €85bn bailout agreement, European Union officials have said. Alexis Tsipras, Greek prime minister, expressed confidence that the deal would be completed.

During the crisis years the official EU (European Union) youth unemployment rate, in particular in respect of Greece and Spain, has been stunning but it's not as bad as it seems.

Growth of retail sales in the Euro Area accelerated at the start of the third quarter, reflecting upturns in each of the bloc’s big-three nations, latest Eurozone Retail PMI (purchasing managers' index) data showed.

Despite almost zero interest rates and quantitative easing (bond-buying in the market, commonly known as money printing) provided by the European Central Bank (ECB) in recent times, monetary policy remains tight for Southern Europe.

German exports and imports fell in the month of June but the year-on-year data are up sharply according to Destatis, the federal statistics office. There was a record monthly surplus and falling oil prices was a factor.

The Eurozone manufacturing sector continued to expand at a solid steady pace at the start of the third quarter, as continued growth in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Austria and Germany offset the deepest contraction of the Greek manufacturing sector in the survey history.

The euro is at its weakest against sterling since late 2007 while the single currency is close to a 12-year low against the US dollar. However, despite the claims of some policy makers that a resultant jump in exports from a currency devaluation will boost growth, the impact is likely to be marginal at best.

While the European Union (EU28) is overwhelmingly the UK's top trading partner, the question has been raised in recent days on whether the Euro Area is Ireland's top trading partner or whether it is an Anglo-Saxon alliance that will copperfasten prosperity, free of sclerotic Europe?

Almost two-thirds of the production of German car manufacturers is outside Germany and they help to make cars + car parts one of the top goods exports from Spain, UK, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Poland.

Business survey data showed the pace of Eurozone economic growth slowing slightly in July, though the rate of expansion remained one of the strongest seen over the past four years. At 53.7, the Markit Eurozone PMI (purchasing managers' index) fell from June’s four-year high of 54.2 but remained slightly above the average seen over the first half of the year.

Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, on Monday called the euro a Roach Motel which is — "a trap that's hard to escape" — and in recent years "Hotel California," the Eagles 1970s song with its lyrics, "You can checkout any time you like/ But you can never leave!" has been invoked during the euro crisis.

Greece & Euro Crisis: The following are recent articles on Greece and the euro crisis. We had been using a temporary index while doing some repair work.

Greece and other poor countries in the Euro Area will not become rich unless there is an economic miracle in Europe similar to the catch-up period of 1950-1973 when Southern Europe grew at a 4.5% annual rate.

Euro Area economic growth hit a four-year high in June, according to the latest PMI (purchasing managers' index) survey data for manufacturing and services activity. Markit’s flash Eurozone PMI, based on around 85% of usual monthly survey replies, rose from 53.6 in May to 54.1 in June, its highest since May 2011.

New passenger car registrations in the EU-15 rose year on year for the 21st consecutive month in May 2015. True, at 0.8% yoy, growth is relatively low. However, this is due to the fact that the number of potential sales days was lower in some countries in May 2015 than in May 2014. In the EU-15, roughly 5.4 m passenger cars were newly registered between January and May 2015. This corresponds to an increase of 6.9% compared to the same period of the previous year (total 2014: +5%). Nevertheless, the number of new registrations in the first five months of 2015 was still below the long-term average values of previous comparative periods (-8.2% vs. the average of the years 2000 to 2015; -15.1% vs. 2000 to 2007). On the one hand according to a comment by Deutsche Bank, this underscores the depth of the sales crisis in the European car market, which took hold in 2008. On the other, the figures show that there is further catch-up potential.

Alex Tsipras has a difficult choice to make at Monday's Greek crisis emergency meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. He risks losing his job as prime minister either way but the risks of a default and sudden exit from the euro are greater for both him and Greece — while the chaos that would inevitably follow the replacement of the euro at the height of the tourist season would likely resemble Argentina's experience more than a decade ago, absent a commitment to reform the economy, Greece would risk becoming another failed state like Venezuela.

On Wednesday the European Commission re-launched its Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) proposal. It also published a first pan-EU list of third-country non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and launched a public consultation to assess whether companies should have to publicly disclose certain tax information. The Commission also said that studies show that in the European Union (EU) "multinational companies pay on average 30% less tax than their domestic competitors. Corporate tax avoidance can result in SMEs carrying a heavier tax burden, as governments compensate for the revenue losses."

On Wednesday the European Commission published a list of the 30 of the world's top tax havens but most are based on small islands and the biggest 4 corporate tax havens in Europe do not fall within the official definition of the rich countries.

The long awaited European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the key economic priority of Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, has successfully passed the final stage of negotiations in the EU legislative procedure and is expected to be approved by the ECOFIN council of EU finance ministers on this Friday and in the European Parliament on 24 June. Meanwhile, China is reported today to be willing to pledge a multibillion-dollar investment in the new infrastructure fund at a summit in Brussels later this month, in Beijing's latest round of chequebook diplomacy to win greater influence.

Talks in Brussels between representatives of the Greek government and the European Commission abruptly broke down Sunday while Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's vice-chancellor and leader of the left of centre SPD party, which has been generally conciliatory towards Greece, warns Monday: "The game theorists of the Greek government are just about to gamble away the future of their country."

German exports in April rose more sharply than expected while industrial output also posted a strong rate, signalling a good start for the Eurozone's largest economy at the start of the second quarter.

Tackling Inequality: Scandinavian countries have the most successful welfare systems in Europe according to a paper on research with the goal to identify innovative ways to limit inequality in households’ disposable incomes and living standards while keeping welfare systems fiscally sustainable — one key finding is that "compared with other world regions, inequality in disposable income in Europe is relatively low and has not increased sharply during the last two decades."

The Eurozone (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.1% in April 2015, down from 11.2% in March 20154 , and down from 11.7% in April 2014. The EU28 unemployment rate was 9.7% in April 2015, stable compared with March 2015 and down from 10.3% in April 2014 according to Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union.

Eurozone service sector business activity rose at the slowest pace in three months during May, as growth of new orders moderated and business optimism slipped to a five-month low.

The German GDP (gross domestic product) forecast for 2015 has been cut primarily due to the weaker-than-expected Q1 GDP growth that provides a lower starting base for the year. Meanwhile German unemployment dropped in May to the lowest level in 24 years.

May data signalled a modest acceleration in the rate of expansion of the Eurozone manufacturing sector. The final seasonally adjusted Eurozone Manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers' index) posted 52.2, matching March's ten-month high but coming in just below the earlier flash estimate of 52.3.

FDI (foreign direct investment) into Europe hits a new record with US$305bn invested in 2014 — a 36% year-on-year growth. In the year 43 European countries — including Russia and Turkey — achieved 4,341 projects reaching a 10% growth over 2013 and created 185,583 jobs (+12%). In a poll of global decision makers, 21% of 808 managers named Germany among their top three countries to invest in — a rise of three percentage points over 2014, according to EY’s 13th European attractiveness survey, launched today.

The Eurozone economy lost growth momentum for a second successive month in May, according to the latest PMI (purchasing managers' index) survey data. However, the survey also showed that the rate of expansion remained sufficiently robust to encourage firms to take on extra staff at the fastest rate for four years. Price indices meanwhile hit three-year highs, adding to signs that deflationary pressures are receding.

On Monday a Greek newspaper claimed that it had a leaked copy of a new proposal from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, on how to break the standoff between Athens and its creditors. Meanwhile Yanis Varoufakis, Greek finance minister, said he expects an agreement with bailout creditors to take place over the next week or so. However, he said the leftist government would reject any "non-viable" compromise.

The European Central Bank president said on Thursday that the current program of bond buying known as quantitative easing or money printing, will not be ended early but he warned that central banks have to be aware of the risk that prolonged low interest rates and bond buying, could lead to financial instability and worsen income inequality.

A return to growth in France and Italy helped boost Eurozone economic growth in the first three months of 2015 to its fastest rate in almost two years. For the first time since H1 2010, all four of the Eurozone’s biggest economies posted growth, while Spain, headed the group with a 0.9% growth rate and the German economy slowed to a 0.3% rate compared with 0.7% in Q4 of 2014. And for the first time since the first quarter of 2011, the currency area’s economy grew faster than both the US and the UK’s.

The German economy continued to grow at a slightly slower pace while in France GDP (gross domestic product) increased at a faster pace in Q1 (first quarter) 2015. German and French exporters did not benefit from weakness in the euro, as the European Central Bank began its €1.1tn bond-buying program while German industrial production fell by 0.5% in March. In France in Q1 2015, production in goods and services rose by 0.7% after stagnation at the end of 2014.

Germany may cut income tax after a government working group has forecast rising tax revenues in coming years. Meanwhile Germans remain cautious savers according to a new report.

Germany had record exports and imports in March 2015 according to Destatis, the federal statistics office, today.