- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- SE Asian summit urges end to Myanmar violence but struggles for solutions
- Wimbledon replaces line judges with electronic system
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England power to 351-3
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England's power to 351-3
- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
Tourism buoys southern Europe's 'Club Med' nations
Derided as "Club Med" nations during the European debt crisis 15 years ago, the economies of Spain, Greece and Portugal are now outperforming their northern peers thanks to a rebound in tourism.
The three nations had to endure harsh austerity measures in the early 2010s imposed by their European Union partners, who were quick to blame their fiscal laxity and lack of competitiveness for their economic woes.
But "the situation has changed" since the Covid-19 pandemic ended, said Zsolt Darvas, an economist at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.
"Today, those countries are growing faster than the European Union average, they are no longer seen as black sheep."
Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 2.5 percent last year, while Portugal's economy grew by 2.3 percent and Greece by 2.0 percent.
That compares to growth of 0.4 percent for the entire 27-member European Union, which was weighed down by Germany's 0.3 percent contraction, making it the world's worst-performing major economy in 2023.
The International Monetary Fund expects the three nations to continue to outperform this year, although at a more modest pace.
It sees growth this year of 2.4 percent in Spain, 1.7 percent in Portugal and 2.0 percent in Greece.
Spain's economy is taking off "like a rocket", Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said recently. The country is "the locomotive" of job creation in the EU, he added on Thursday.
- 'Great efforts' -
Economists say this turnaround is largely due to a strong rebound in tourism, which reached record levels last year following the lifting of pandemic travel restrictions.
The sector is key for the three nations, accounting for almost 25 percent of Greece's economy, and 12 percent in both Portugal and Spain.
The trio of nations are also benefiting from the EU's massive pandemic recovery fund, whose mix of grants and loans in exchange for structural reforms will largely go to southern countries.
Spain -- the biggest beneficiary of the fund after Italy -- has so far received 38 billion euros, Greece 15 billion euros and Portugal eight billion euros.
The three nations have also made "great efforts to improve their economic attractiveness" with structural reforms that have boosted their competitiveness and improved their labour markets, said Darvas.
The reforms have helped draw foreign investment, especially in renewable energy and cloud computing.
Amazon's cloud computing division AWS announced last month it would invest over 15 billion euros to expand its data centres in Spain.
Many automakers such as Volkswagen and Stellantis, whose brands include Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep, have chosen to assemble their new electric vehicles in Spain, Europe's second largest automobile producer after Germany.
- Challenges remain -
The growth spurt in the three countries, however, is partly catching up after the steep falls in GDP during the financial crisis. Greece's GDP for example plunged 25 percent.
Economists warn they still face challenges.
While they have all seen joblessness fall, the unemployment rate in Greece and Spain sits above 11 percent, way above the EU average of 5.9 percent.
And former European economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn told AFP that "deficits and debt levels remain large in some cases" even though "divergences between euro area countries have decreased compared to 10 years ago".
Portugal swung to a budget surplus of 1.2 percent of GDP last year while Greece's public deficit declined to 1.6 percent in 2023 from 2.5 percent in the previous year. The EU average is 3.5 percent.
This has helped its 10-year borrowing rate to drop to 3.5 percent from 13 percent during the financial crisis.
Darvas said the "convergence" of southerrn European nations with northern ones "is likely to continue" but at a "slower pace". Spain, Portugal and Greece still have "work to do," he added.
O.Norris--AMWN