‘End in sight’ for crisis-hit EU states

The queues of jobless people across Spain, Portugal and Greece will lengthen further but an end to recession is within sight, according to the latest Reuters poll on some of the eurozone’s most vulnerable economies.

Yesterday’s poll of more than 40 economists, conducted over the last week, followed a meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bankers on Saturday, who pledged to put growth before austerity to revive the global economy.

More than anywhere else in the world, the southern European economies of the eurozone have borne the brunt of austerity, which has brought a far higher economic and human cost than many of its proponents envisaged in 2010.