Traduction de «Bilan des répercussions de l'asymétrie » (Français → Anglais) :

The challenge represented by the skills mismatch should be tackled promptly, as structural mismatches can negatively affect economic recovery and growth.

No one can predict the future, the impact of derivatives and off-balance sheet liabilities, the impact of lower stock markets, and the unstable economies of some of the world's largest countries to which these institutions want to grow to and invest in on a global basis.

The analysis of previous episodes of corporate balance sheet adjustment shows that they have been associated with sizeable negative macroeconomic consequences, including weak GDP growth due to lower investment rates and falls in labour compensation.

In fact, the G20 and the IMF are working on a number of proposals which – apart from a financial transactions tax – also include taxation of bonuses and pay in the financial sector (targeting market participants‘ willingness to take excessive risk) as well as taxation of balance sheet items in order to prevent mismatches, all of which could be combined with insurance schemes to avoid the socialisation of future losses in the financial sector.

2006 was a remarkable year, with growth driven by domestic demand thanks to an improved labour market situation (3 million jobs created of which 2 million in the euro area). This allowed the EU economy to weather energy prices that reached record levels in the summer, tighter monetary conditions and a slowdown in the United States. Such developments bode well for 2007. On the inflation front, while higher energy costs pushed up consumer prices to 2.2% last year in both the EU and the euro area, inflation is expected to decline to 1.8% in 2007 in the euro area (2.0% in the EU) on the back of lower oil prices and a relatively limited impac ...[+++]t of the German VAT hike.

The second point is the asymmetry and well-being implications of job shortages and labour shortages.