POLITICAL PACKAGES (2)

The growth package announced on Tuesday by the Danish Government foresees economic growth of 1.3% pa from now to 2020. The growth figures for 2012 announced this morning show just how difficult that is going to be to achieve.

The economy shrank by 0.6% in 2012. Even worse, the anaemic growth of the summer was replaced by a fall of 0.9% in the last quarter. Which means that the Government is starting its growth package with an economy in reverse gear. Even the Government's supporters had difficulty reconciling these two things on the news programmes, and were reduced to calling the growth target "challenging, but possible".

I would call it unrealistic. Since the crisis began in 2008, the Danish economy has shrunk by 4%. True, this is better than the 7.5% experienced in Italy. But it compares very badly with the 2% growth in Germany and 6% in Sweden over the same period. These are Denmark's neighbours and biggest trading partners, and they are doing a lot better. The growth package is a good thing for Danish companies, but it is not going to get Denmark back onto the right track. More is needed.

Walter Blotscher