Netherlands and Germany the only real euro winners, study finds
Over the entire period since 1999, Germans are on average estimated to be cumulatively richer by €23,000 than they would otherwise have been, and the Dutch €21,000 wealthier
Berlin — Germany and the Netherlands have benefited enormously from the euro over the 20 years since its launch, a study has found, while for almost every other member the single currency has been a serious drag on economic growth. The study, by the Centre for European Politics, a German thinktank, shows that the currency bloc's most scrupulous devotees of fiscal orthodoxy who have been most critical of bailouts of indebted periphery countries over the years have been its greatest beneficiaries. Launched in 1999, the euro triggered credit and investment booms by extending the benefits of Germany's low interest-rate environment across the bloc's periphery. But those debts became hard to sustain after the 2008 financial crisis, with Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus forced to seek financial aid as growth slowed and financing became scarce. Over the entire period since 1999, Germans were on average estimated to be cumulatively richer by €23,000 than they would otherwise have ...
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