Fair dos to the German government. Its stimulus measures, once derided as puny, have delivered a bigger bang for the buck than anyone expected. Germany and France, partly helped by Germany's stimulus programme, surprisingly exited recession in the second quarter. Both countries' 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth yanked up the eurozone as a whole to only a 0.1 per cent contraction. Economists across the continent are now tweaking their spreadsheets. Coupled with Wednesday's message from the Fed that the US economy may be levelling out, the impression that the worst is over is solidifying.
對待德國政府要公平。德國的經濟刺激措施曾被嘲笑爲微不足道，但其影響卻超出了所有人的預期。一定程度上在德國經濟刺激計劃的推動下，德國和法國第二季度出人意料地擺脫了經濟衰退。上述兩國經濟各自較上一季度成長0.3%，拉動歐元區整體經濟萎縮幅度收窄至僅僅0.1%。歐洲大陸各地的經濟學家如今紛紛在修改自己的數據表格。加之週三美聯準(Fed)又傳出美國經濟或許已企穩的資訊，進一步鞏固了最糟糕時期已經過去的印象。