“Lower birthrates in the south will mean weaker growth and productivity, holding the birthrate down and producing more fiscal problems.”

“Lower birthrates in the south will mean weaker growth and productivity, holding the birthrate down and producing more fiscal problems.”
Over time, he added, “it suggests that the already divergent economic performance between Northern
and Southern Europe may become structural rather than cyclical.”
The lower birthrates have been aggravated by fiscal pressures that constrained countries from offering robust family support programs.
After Economic Crisis, Low Birthrates Challenge Southern Europe -
By LIZ ALDERMANAPRIL 16, 2017
ATHENS — As a longtime fertility doctor, Minas Mastrominas has helped couples in Greece give birth to thousands of bouncing babies.
But the financial crisis “hit Europe when birthrates in many countries had just started to rise again,”
said Michaela Kreyenfeld of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany.
Without significant improvement, the region is trending toward some of the lowest birthrates in the world, which will accelerate stress on pension
and welfare systems and crimp growth as a shrinking work force competes with the rest of Europe and the world.
As couples grapple with a longer-than-expected stretch of low growth, high unemployment, precarious jobs
and financial strain, they are increasingly deciding to have just one child — or none.
In Tempi, a verdant region in central Greece, many primary schools
and kindergartens have closed since 2012 as parents had fewer children and young Greeks left the country, said Xanthi Zisaki, a municipal councilor.