- International Women’s Day: no catch-up yet. Despite the progress in education and political representation of women in the last 30 years, the struggle for gender equality continues. The gender gap remains largely unchanged, influenced by systemic inequalities that hinder women’s professional development. At the current pace of progress, we would still need another 46 years for women to reach male labor participation rates, almost twice as much (93 years) to close the gender pay gap and 33 years to bridge the differences in political representation between men and women in OECD countries. In this context, declining financing for gender-equality initiatives is a cause for concern. More public support is the need of the hour to dismantle the barriers that women face.
- Eurozone: How to get the fiscal genie back into the bottle. Recent public spending data from Germany, France, Italy and Spain are already raising concerns over the bloc’s commitment to fiscal discipline. Avoiding austerity ghouls and managing explosive fiscal trade-offs (social protection, defense, greening) pose serious questions to fiscal pathways. While governments in the Eurozone’s four biggest economies are trying to tighten their belts ahead of the reintroduction of the new EU fiscal framework in 2025, we do not see any immediate consolidation efforts that would be enough to make the countries fully compliant. Worse, between reference trajectories sent by the Commission and structural plans submitted by member states, a sobering and untimely list of countries would fall under the excessive deficit procedure this summer. Available projections for 2025 suggest that nine Eurozone countries would have deficit-to-GDP ratios higher than 3% in 2025, while 12 Eurozone countries will have debt ratios wider than 60%.
- Higher rates for European households: win some, lose some. Higher interest rates are benefiting some European households more than others. While German and French households have seen their interest incomes increase faster than payments, Italian and Spanish households have seen a deteriorating interest balance. Differing savings behaviors and banking environments are to blame for the unequal pass-through of monetary policy.
What to watch
93 years to close the gender pay gap; putting the Eurozone’s fiscal genie back in the bottle and the winners and losers of interest income
What to watch - summary
Download
Authors
Ludovic Subran
Allianz SE
Allianz SE
Roberta Fortes
Allianz Trade
Allianz Trade
Jasmin Gröschl
Allianz SE
Allianz SE
Maxime Darmet
Allianz Trade
Allianz Trade
Patricia Pelayo Romero
Allianz SE
Allianz SE
Maddalena Martini
Allianz SE Branch Rome
Allianz SE Branch Rome