The eurozone is confronted with a crisis of not just labour costs and prices – but culture. The burden is primarily on southern Europe, where sovereign bond credit spreads (relative to the German Bund) range from 370 basis points (Italy) to 1,960 basis points (Greece). The northern eurozone countries have tight spreads against Germany – a narrow 40 to 80 basis points for the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and France. There are thus two distinctly defined eurozone areas: in the north and in the south.
歐元區面臨的危機不僅關乎勞動力成本和價格,更關乎文化。首當其衝的是南歐國家,這些國家的主權債券相對於德國國債(Bund)的信用利差,從370個基點(義大利)到1960個基點(希臘)不等。歐元區北部地區的國家相對於德國國債的利差很小,荷蘭、奧地利、芬蘭和法國都在40到80個基點之內,差距不大。因此,歐元區內部存在著南、北兩個特徵截然不同的區域。