Discussions we had today mostly focussed on the economic outlook and the work underway with regard to budget planning.
Of course, because of all of the work that finance ministers are doing at the moment, it was a particularly helpful time to get the latest assessment from our institutions and particularly, from the European Central Bank.
We discussed where the euro area economy stands at the moment. We can see that it is still growing overall and that we have avoided the risk of a real recession that many warned us of. But we also acknowledge that while that growth is there, the growth is not very fast and we can see that this growth is still uneven.
We have been tracking inflation and our efforts are now bearing fruit. Inflation has indeed come down a lot. Over time this will be very positive for households and for businesses. We can see that our economies are performing much better than we would have expected, considering the many shocks that we’ve had to deal with. We have record levels of employment in the euro area, which is indeed a historic achievement.
Ministers intervened, reflecting the fact that we are firmly in the budget season and this entails challenging and complex decisions to be made to keep our public finances on track.
With the new economic governance framework in place, we now have a changed context for the coordination of our budget plans. So we considered the key guidelines in relation to this work and reminded each other of the obligations that we have within our shared currency. All agreed on the importance of getting this new framework off to a good start.
The first step in all of this will be the submission of the medium-term fiscal-structural plans in which budget targets and the reforms and investments that are needed to deliver debt sustainability and then sustainable growth will be laid out. It is really important that these plans be credible and comprehensive to ensure we deliver those twin goals of allowing our economies to grow and also ensuring that we have sustainable, safe and healthy public finances.
That formed the majority of our Eurogroup discussion this morning. We also heard a very helpful update from Minister Giorgetti on all of the important work that is now underway at the G7 level.
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