We discuss the scope of asymmetries in growth and inflation developments in the euro area countries, taking the euro area as the natural benchmark since the establishment of EMU. We start with a descriptive analysis of a set of indicators that can give a first idea of the likelihood of or extent...

Given the importance of bank credit in Belgium as a financing source for both households and non-financial firms, it is important to know how Belgian banks react to a monetary policy shock. Since the direct influence of central banks is confined to the very short-term market interest rates,...

This paper analyses the path of private consumption and its main macroeconomic determinants. These are related to the life-cycle approach which helps explaining consumption smoothing. In that respect, it is important to go beyond the simple correlation between current disposable income and...

This paper is an annual publication issued by the Microeconomic Analysis service of the National Bank of Belgium. The Flemish maritime ports (Antwerp, Ghent, Oostend, Zeebrugge), the Autonomous Port of Liège and the port of Brussels play a major role in their respective regional economies and...

This paper provides an extensive overview of the economic importance and development of the Port Autonome de Liège, over the period 1997 - 2002. Focusing on the three major variables of value added, salaried employment and investment, it also provides information about the financial situation...

This article aims at setting forth the development of venture capital in Belgium. To that end, the situation is compared with the one prevailing in the whole of Europe and particularly in some neighbouring countries: Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In a first part the...

This article gives a general overview of the main issues covered in the literature on the new economy. The latter is defined as an economy in which the emergence of a new production sector, that of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), affects the growth rate of productivity in...

Like other network industries, the European gas supply industry has been liberalised, along the lines of what has been done in the United Kingdom and the United States, by opening up to competition the upstream and downstream segments of essential transmission infrastructure. The aim of this...

This paper provides a survey of the main developments in the iron and steel industry over the last few decades. The first chapter covers the changing conditions on international markets and identifies the main challenges facing the companies in this sector. These include the boom in China, the...

Structured finance instruments represent a form of securitization technology which can be defined by the characteristics of pooling of financial assets, delinking of the credit risk of the asset pool from the credit risk of the originating intermediary, and issuance of tranched liabilities...