Our quarterly analysis of Eurostat’s macroeconomic data of the Eurozone for Q3 2013 has now been completed and published. The interactive Business Structure Maps of each member state may be navigated here.
Italy, together with the UK, Sweden and France have the highest resilience (approximately 80%), while Belgium, Ireland, and Spain score a low 60%.
It is interesting to note that when it comes to the entire region, there are clear indications of a slow but consistent recovery. The evolution of complexity (its increase) in the plot belows shows that clearly.
However, complexity remains dangerously close to critical complexity, denoting alarmingly high fragility. This means that the system is very much exposed and incapable of dealing with intense shocks, financial contagion or extreme events. Nevertheless, it is also evident how, based on the available data, we have hit the bottom around Q4 2011, i.e. approximately two years ago. As of today, the situation in terms of complexity is comparable to that of Q3 2010. In essence, overall situation of the Eurozone has not evolved over the last three years. This is in line with an evident lack of reforms and lack leadership at both EU and country level.
The evolution of resilience follows a similar trend and, although it is still alarmingly low.
Finally, it is interesting to notice how in terms of recovery the 15 core Eurozone states are outpacing the 13 new member states.
While the crisis peaked in Western Europe in Q4 2007, it climaxed approximately one year later in Central and Eastern Europe. In terms of recovery things are different. While the EU15 group touched the bottom in Q1 2011, the EU13 did so in Q3 2012, i.e. 18 months later. What is also clear is that the complexity gradient (higher complexity means a more lively economy) in the case of the EU13 group is substantially lower than that of the EU15. This means that, based on the currently available data, recovery in Central and Eastern Europe will be significantly slower.
Artificial Intuition 
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