Disaster averted for another year, but crisis unresolved

Our fears that the euro-zone crisis would re-escalate in 2013 proved to be unfounded, thanks in part to the continued calming influence of the ECB’s OMT backstop. But the region’s fundamental problems have still not been resolved. Against this background, we expect a year of positive, but distinctly sluggish, GDP growth in 2014 – we have pencilled in a 0.5% gain. In short, while we do not foresee disaster in the euro-zone in 2014, another difficult year lies ahead.