Facts you can't escape

Europe Back To 19th Century Growth Rates

Zero Hedge,

1 April, 2013

Long-term growth conditions in Spain, Italy and France are as weak as they have been (other than during wartime) in over a century.

The chart below tells the story. As JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest notes, while European sovereign debt spreads have rallied across the board, European bank lending to households and businesses is still declining, and the cost of small business loans in Italy and Spain is higher than both real and nominal growth.

With ECB policy now clearly useless given Europe's fragmentation, and with Germany's forward expectations rolling over, it is hard to see how, absent wholesale devaluation and/or inflation (or as Cembalest notes destruction & rebuilding), Europe will recover from this.