Is EU facing an economic leadership change?

Liz Aldeman & Melissa Eddy, “Europe’s Economic Laggards¹ Have Become Its Leaders” The New York Times, April 30^th 2024.

[…] Something extraordinary is happening to the European economy: Southern nations that nearly broke up the euro currency bloc during the financial crisis in 2012 are growing faster than Germany and other big countries that have long served as the region’s growth engines.

The dynamic is bolstering²  the economic health of the region and keeping the eurozone from slipping too far. In a reversal of fortunes, the laggards have become leaders. Greece, Spain and Portugal grew in 2023 more than twice as fast as the eurozone average. Italy was not far behind.

Just over a decade ago, Southern Europe was the center of a eurozone debt crisis that threatened to pull apart the bloc of countries that use the euro. It has taken years to recover from deep national recessions and multibillion-dollar international bailouts with tough austerity programs. […]

Now Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is dragging down the regio