There are reasons to be concerned about the medium-term outlook for the large euro-zone countries

Currently, all the four largest euro-zone countries show weaknesses that may worsen their economic situation markedly in the medium term: Germany is negatively affected by the very high weight of "industries of the past" and by the deterioration in cost competitiveness and the lack of productivity gains; Italy is suffering from stagnant productivity gains and weak corporate modernisation; Spain currently has declining productivity and negative potential growth; France is negatively affected by a very low level of corporate modernisation combined with high labour costs.