Eurogroup meeting highlights continued support to recovery

The need to facilitate growth in Europe was the prevailing theme as Eurogroup and other European Union (EU) finance ministers met in Berlin on Friday, reported Xinhua.

"If we get this right, the recovery will be strong and it will reach citizens all the way across Europe," Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe told a press conference after the meeting.

Discussing the balance between health concerns and the damage to the economy, Donohoe said "we all hope to avoid some of the earlier lockdowns, but of course COVID-19 continues to represent a clear challenge to our public health."

Both Donohoe and European Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni warned against too early phaseout of recovery support.

Gentiloni noted, however, that it would be reasonable to expect "a shift from emergency measures to improving the fundamentals of our economies."

"If we miscalculate the timing of this landing, we risk damaging the European economy," he said.

Gentiloni reminded of the need to ensure sustainability in the medium-run and the need "to set a path for adjustment at some point."

The commissioner warned that the uneven economic contraction may lead to fragmentation. While the overall decline in Eurozone's GDP in the second quarter was 11.8 percent, individual countries range between four and 18 percent.