Blog post by: Era Dabla-Norris, Davide Furceri, Mauricio Soto | Public approval is crucial for carrying out difficult reforms that can help countries lower debt and increase growth Many countries struggle with low economic growth and high debt and will need bold fiscal actions to restore their finances. Two significant areas for potential savings are energy subsidies and pension systems. However, reforms in both areas can be unpopular with the public. Public support is crucial for the success of these reforms, and governments...

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Today, the European Commission adopted the 2025-2030 working plan for the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Energy Labelling Regulation. The plan provides a list of products that should be prioritised to introduce ecodesign requirements and energy labelling over the next five years. This will foster sustainable, repairable, circular and energy efficient products across Europe,  in line with the Clean Industrial Deal and the Competitiveness Compass. The priority products for ecodesign and energy labelling requirements are steel and aluminium, textiles (with a focus on apparel), furniture, tyres and mattresses. These...

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NEW YORK—The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data today released the March 2025 Survey of Consumer Expectations, which shows that households’ inflation expectations increased at the short-term horizon, remained unchanged at the medium-term horizon, and ticked down at the longer-term horizon. Unemployment, job loss, and earnings growth expectations deteriorated. Household income growth expectations declined. Households were also more pessimistic about their year-ahead financial situations and credit access. Stock price expectations declined and reached the lowest level...

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Firms reported declining interest rates on bank loans, while indicating a slight further tightening of other lending conditions. The bank loan financing gap remained almost unchanged, with firms reporting a reduced need for such loans alongside a slight decrease in availability. Firms’ one-year-ahead median inflation expectations decreased slightly to 2.9%, down from 3%, while median inflation expectations three and five years ahead remained unchanged at 3.0%. In the most recent round of the Survey on the Access to Finance...

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