Krugman urges State to ease austerity

One of America’s foremost economists has castigated the Government’s relentless austerity and said the operation of the euro is being run solely in the interests of Germany, to the detriment of Europe.

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman said the Government should be trying to argue its case more forcefully with its EU partners and should protest more at the domestic economic depression wrought by the austerity programme.

“What is shockingly absent is a coalition of the debtors to say ‘look we are doing our best but you have to cut us some slack’,” said Krugman.