Monthly Report No. 10/2023

Chart of the Month Moving up the ladder of ‘complexity’ via structural transformation by Francesca Guadagno Opinion Corner The European Central Bank’s bemusing ‘strategy’ by Leon Podkaminer After a protracted period of inaction, in November 2022 the ECB finally embarked on policy tightening – even though inflation in the euro area had by that time already started to decline. One possible explanation for this paradox may have been the ECB’s motivation to ‘save face’ in a situation where inflation could hardly be contained by conventional monetary policy tools. Patents as green technology barometers Trends and disparities by Mahdi Ghodsi and Zahra Mousavi As the urgency of the climate crisis grows, this study offers a unique perspective on eco-innovation, through the analysis of patents granted in green and environmental technologies. The research identifies energy generation and transportation as the leading sectors, with 36% and 34%, respectively, of all green patents granted globally. However, while the advanced economies are at the forefront of green innovation, the developing nations are lagging significantly behind. This inequality not only exacerbates climate vulnerabilities, but also widens the global divide. Investment in natural gas capacities in the Western Balkans by Bernd Christoph Ströhm Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 forced those EU countries that relied on Russian gas to diversify their energy supplies. In the Western Balkans, Croatia in particular is transitioning to become a regional energy powerhouse and power hub, while the governments of Montenegro and Serbia are also investing in the expansion of natural gas capacities. With those investments, LNG could temporarily become the main energy source for Western Balkan countries and could facilitate the phasing-out of coal use in the region by 2050. Monthly and quarterly statistics for Central, East and Southeast Europe