I wish I could disagree, but indeed, this grim picture is substantially true.
And yet, I have a consoling hope that there will be a pick up toward the end of Oct - even because of a change in consumer sentiment. There must be some point at which prices cannot keep falling.
In the long term, real reform of the banking sector is needed, and debt forgiveness as well, otherwise inequality just grows and grows.
I hope the EU doesn't take the other way out - in which case we will wake up one morning, at war with Russia.
