It's a kind of weird article. Of course the EU is greatly affected by the collapse of Russian gas pipeline and Mutti's decision to decommission all nuclear plants (and Holland's stopping all fracking due to earthquakes) at the same time. Renewable energy is a bit like throwing social workers at it. The hype over EV's? Fugettaboudit. Elon sold a bill of goods, but charging infrastructure isn't there.

The Ukraine refugee crisis (and Syrian before it) is largely contained. Mainly French riots at the moment.

The UK's 7 years focused on Brexit distracted the EU from important stuff as well.

Population? I'm a bit unsure how to tally this. Aging population should mean more jobs for youngsters. So the drop in available jobs seems curious, but in tech around here there's a big worker shortage - other sectors as well. So how did they calculate?

25% cut in hours with only 10% cut in pay should be quite attractive if able to fill time or work. But most businesses here seem to be focused on cutting costs, especially headcount, rather than expanding business. A short-term philosophy or long-term retreat?

"The Olds" are prolly figuring out how much longer they're living and how they have to stretch retirement,, but they do have decent healthcare here. But how about real estate costs? When will the heavy speculation over EU property recede so living in cities is more affordable? (How much has AirBnB been pushed back by new city legislation to stop it from cornering & inflating downtown prices with 0 giveback and much avoided taxation?)

Note that in Europe crunched down vacations are less drastic than in spread out US, so cutting spending to the Mediterranean is less heartbreak than not getting out of Kansas or Wyoming this year. Yes, less spending per capita in high inflation times.

Trending towards less food spoilage sounds like a good thing, even tho forced by high prices (how else does change happen - w/o crisis?). But yes, the drop in inflation (hopefully) should make some of the current phase less painful.