True, but most measures show a negative gap in Europe.

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Sentiment measures continue to get more negative, with only 25% bullish in a recent AAII survey.

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In fact, as he explains in his letter, the OBR forecasts have always built in a negative impact on growth from the austerity measures.

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In effect these types of measures represent on-off negative supply shocks on inflation, taking it lower, says Tony Volpon, managing director at Nomura Securities in New York.

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Joerg Kraemer, chief economist at Commerzbank -- Germany's second-largest bank -- would expect the ECB to cut the deposit rate to negative territory before putting in place any other non-standard measures such as a loan scheme for small businesses.

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On the negative side, Europe is just now feeling the brunt of austerity measures enacted in 2012.

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By many measures, real short-term interest rates are still negative: overall consumer prices rose by 2.7% in the year to August.

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What about measures of inflation, such as the Consumer Price Index, that are negative?

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In remarks a few weeks ago, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed concerns about the austerity measures being undertaken in European countries, worried that they would have a negative effect on European economies going forward and would act as a drag on the global recovery.

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Despite their importance, financial measures should be complemented with non-financial metrics (which often indicate positive and negative trends earlier than the bottom line) to present a more complete picture of the organization.

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