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Business Daily: Can Europe Compete?

Can Europe Compete?

31/05/2012

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Can Europe Compete?

Is Europe simply uncompetitive? We ask a former EU commissioner and a Swiss economist.

Back in the 90s, one EU Commissioner called the euro "a breastplate against  instability". Is he beating his breast now? We also explain competitiveness and why they've run out of coins in Zimbabwe.

As part of our week-long series of interviews with some of the people who helped create the euro, we speak today to one of its leading cheerleaders back in the 1990s. 

The man who was European Commissioner for Monetary Affairs at the time of the euro's launch, Yves Thibault de Silguy, called the currency "a breastplate against financial instability" back then. Is he beating his breast now? 

Plus, we have a working guide to competitiveness from Stephane Garelli, author of the IMD Global Competitiveness Index. What does the word comptetitive actually mean when it comes to national economies? And is it all it's cracked up to be? 

We also hear from the BBC's Steve Vickers in Harare on why they're running out of coins in Zimbabwe, and how difficult that makes everyday transactions there.

(Image: Yves-Thibault de Silguy in 2007. Credit: AFP / Getty)

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