The Economist Intelligence Unit’s central forecast is that Belgium will still be a
single state in 2018，as agreeing the terms of a split between the Flemish and
francophone communities would be as hard as agreeing to stay together．
Tensions between the two linguistic groups will persist．The potential
inclusion of the separatist New-Flemish Alliance(N-VA)，the country‘S largest
parW,in the new federal government could exacerbate these．

Highlights 7

Political outlook 8

Economic policy outlook 9

Economic forecast 11

Annual data and forecast 15

Quarterly data 16

Monthly data 17

Annual trends charts 19

Quarterly trends charts 20

Monthly trends charts 21

Comparative economic indicators 22

Basic data 23

Political structure 24

Politics 25

Economy 35

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