Business
Europe’s Economy To Recover, Soon
Europe’s economy showed signs of resilience in December as activity in Germany stabilised, suggesting a return to growth later this year might be in the cards, The Tide Source.
The Market purchasing managers’ index for the 17-member eurozone hit a nine-month high in December — although the reading of 47.2 reflected an 11th month of contraction and the improvement over November was unlikely to have prevented the recession deepening in the fourth quarter.
“The PMI surveys provide some hope that the eurozone is showing signs of lifting out of its deep double-dip recession,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. “The surveys at least bring some substance to the belief that the worst is over and that a return to growth is in sight for the region in 2013.”
The eurozone fell back into recession for the second time in four years in the third quarter of 2012 as a sharp fall in activity in debt-ridden southern Europe weighed on output across the region.
Government budget cuts and tax increases have contributed to the slowdown, making households more cautious about spending and businesses less confident about investing. Unemployment has risen to almost 12% across the eurozone.
Recent economic reports and business surveys suggest the recession continued through the fourth quarter, and some policy makers — including the European Central Bank — have warned that growth may prove elusive again in 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that the eurozone crisis was far from over and warned of tougher conditions to come.
But Europe’s biggest economy may have weathered the worst of the storm, with December’s German PMI data showing the country’s services sector grew for the first time in five months and posted its strongest reading since April.
“A return to growth among Germany’s service providers helped lift the private sector into expansion territory during December, despite another reduction in manufacturing output over the month,” said Markit senior economist Tim Moore.
By contrast, the activity in France’s service industries declined for a fifth consecutive month. The overall PMI reading showed the decline in manufacturing and services extending for a 10th month, although the rate of decline was the slowest since August.
December was also a bad month for the U.K.’s dominant service sector.
The word’s sixth-biggest economy emerged from recession in the third quarter, thanks to the boost generated by the London Olympics. But austerity measures have squeezed millions of households and many Britons are no better off than they were over a decade ago.
“The first fall in service sector activity for two years raises the likelihood that the U.K. economy is sliding back into recession,” Markit’s Williamson said.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
