Access Investments-European Union- ROMANIA

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is expected to flesh out his plans for a bond-buying programme he announced in August, although few economists polled by Reuters expect he will reveal its innermost workings. Economists in the Reuters poll were divided, though, over whether the bank will cut its main refinancing rate from 0.75 percent to a new record low of 0.5 percent this week. An October rate cut instead looked equally likely. Heaping further pressure on policymakers and likely adding to expectations for a cut, the PMI for the region's dominant services sector fell to 47.2 from July's 47.9, below a flash 47.5. It has only been above 50 once in the past year. New business has declined for a year, despite firms cutting prices for the ninth straight month, with the sub index coming in at 44.7 - just above 44.5 in July but revised down from a flash 45.0. As the downturn intensifies, firms reduced their workforce again in August, with the composite employment index registering 47.5, above July's reading of 47.2. The index has been below 50 since the turn of the year. "Sharp declines in new orders at manufacturers and service providers, plus further job losses, mean that there is little prospect of a sustained improvement in economic conditions over the near-term".   Well....how many times do I need to explain that this relentless drive for increasing “competiveness” that is supposed to be *the solution * to debt is simply a downward spiral for wages and effective demand. Whether you decrease wages, social wages or increase the productivity of labor (produce more output with same or less wages) to increase competitiveness, the net effect is that you damage the ratio of wages to economic output, you damage effective demand and the health of the economy. And then you have an economy which becomes addicted to injections of unsustainable debt which are absolutely needed to achieve a reasonable level of activity - otherwise unemployment grows at unacceptable levels. This is the problem of the global economy today and the neo liberal "competitive's" still tell us streamline, produce more with less wages, cut wages, cut government spending, give more profits to capital and the problem will be solved. No it won't. You simply slowly kill global demand - the downturn has reached the Finnish economy now.