Pandemic, energy crisis, inflation: Europeans are increasingly pessimistic about their economic prospects as they look to the future. But Europe has proven to be more resilient than expected.
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00:00 The lights are twinkling, but for many, life in Europe feels like it's losing its shine.
00:07 With the inflation, everything got higher, like the price for a living.
00:11 In the centre here, it's like at least 500 bucks. It's so hard.
00:14 If I want to get some great food, I know that I have to invest more than I did before.
00:19 So that's something I'm a bit concerned about, because I still want to have high standards in terms of food.
00:25 It definitely feels like the standard of living is getting worse.
00:28 I live in the UK, but we have a lot of friends across Europe and we hear the same thing from pretty much all of them.
00:33 And most people don't expect things to improve.
00:36 An opinion poll earlier this month showed 73% of Europeans think their standard of living will go down in the next year.
00:45 And four in ten people surveyed in the same poll said they sometimes, or most of the time, have difficulties paying bills.
00:54 Inflation and high energy prices brought on by the COVID pandemic and then the war in Ukraine have hit household budgets hard.
01:01 But Europe's actually doing better than expected.
01:05 At some point, governments were planning for power outages and energy rationing to get through a winter without Russian gas.
01:13 While the economy isn't thriving, the worst fears have lessened and the big picture is less bad than was initially thought.
01:22 Despite the gloominess, there is some reason for optimism. Wages are growing and inflation is dropping.
01:29 Europe overall is pretty comfortable. Part of what makes Europe great is also part of what makes Europe challenging, which is its inertia.
01:39 You know, people are used to having a certain level of health care and public services. They're not used to changes in that.
01:47 If you look at the European Union in global, there's not so many domains where we are not one of the top performers.
01:58 We are one of the most innovative continents in the world. We are a wealthy continent with a very high purchasing power.
02:06 Europe's position as an economic superpower is being tested in the face of crisis. But so far, the continent has shown more resilience than predicted.