Country Analysis Belgium

COUNTRY ANALYSIS - BELGIUM

With an area of 30,528 km2, Belgium is the fifth smallest country in the European Union, but it is the tenth in population and the third by the density. It is the 18th world economy and one of the most highly globalized .

It has a high degree of interdependence with Germany, France and the Netherlands and it enjoys natural advantages (geographical location, direct access to the sea) and quality infrastructure (transport, logistics, telecommunications); moreover, it is favored by a very dense road network and has a system of railways well developed.

Another strength of the Belgian economy is that it's based on a multilingual workforce, productive and generally well formed. Flanders is the most dynamic part of the country (60% of GDP, 60% of Belgian companies, and 80% of Belgian exports).

As a weak point, we have to consider that having a few natural resources Belgium imports substantial quantities of raw materials and exports a large volume of manufactures, making its economy vulnerable to volatility in world markets.

The crisis that erupted in 2008 touched Belgium when it was already suffering an economic downturn and it affected the country financially and economically (the growth rate dropped from 2.9% in 2007 to -2.8% in 2009 ).

The authorities responded quickly to stabilize troubled banks and restore

confidence in the operators.

Turning his attention to longer term, the Federal Government established a Committee asking to propose measures "to strengthen the financial system to avoid future problems ".

In the end of 2009, following the financial crisis, Belgium has decided to strengthen supervision on financial institutions and protection of investors and savers, and reconcile micro and macro components of the control of financial institutions.

In 2010, Parliament passed a new law for controlling the financial sector. The new model is based on two independent supervisory authorities, namely the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) and the Authority of Financial Services and Markets (FSMA) .

In this system, the NBB assumes the entire supervision of banks and insurance companies, and monitors the FSMA financial markets; furthermore it has the power to protect consumers of financial products.

Thanks to the anti-crisis measures adopted by the Government to ease tensions and renewed financial confidence of consumers and entrepreneurs, and the

stronger external demand, the Belgian economy has experienced a vigorous revival of activity in 2010 . Another explanatory factor is also the growth revival and strong recovery happened in Germany, which, as previously mentioned, has a high degree of interdependence with the Belgian economy and so a positive impact on it.

In 2010, GDP growth