Bankers say Europe crisis not over

After a private meeting of leading commercial bankers, government officials, central bankers and trade union officials, Swedish finance minister Anders Borg told Reuters: “There is a clear divide between the financial markets, who think a lot of this is fixed, and the people in the real economy and particularly from our side as the governments.”

Unemployment in Europe would only fall from 11.8 to 11.7 per cent this year, growth was stagnant, real wages were not rising in most countries and it would take countries such as Sweden and France years to reform their labour markets, he said.

“So it is very dangerous to declare that the crisis is over because that would undermine the crisis insight that we need to have among the companies, among the population, among the unions, to be able to go through this process,” Borg said.

Sweden is not a member of the 17-nation euro zone and Borg has been among the strongest critics of the bloc’s handling of its sovereign debt crisis since late 2009.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Deutsche Bank co-chief executive Anshu Jain, who co-chaired the closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum declined to speak to reporters.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi left Davos before the meeting.

Chinese central bank deputy governor Yi Gang,

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