The euro zone’s economic history from the viewpoint of industrial unit labour costs in the large member countries

An observation o f the trend in industrial unit labour costs reminds us that: An internal devaluation (reduction in labour costs) is the only available method to correct a cost competitiveness disadvantage; Germany in the early 2000s and Spain since 2009 have carried out internal devaluations, which is obviously a non-cooperative policy which, in addition, is costly in the short term for the country that carrie s it out ; France and Italy, which refuse to use an internal devaluation, have a structural cost competitiveness problem; Germany is now returning to the situation of excessive production costs relative to the other euro-zone countries that it had in the early 2000s, which at the time triggered the Schröder reforms : This explains Germany's current difficulties (market share losses, declining industry).