2024-04-23 16:50:31
Europe needs to focus on deepening the single market.
As Day.Az reported on Friday with reference to Trend, Alfred Kammer, Director of the IMF’s European Department, said this today during a briefing on the economic prospects of Europe within the framework of the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington.
“The IMF’s forecasts for Europe call for a soft landing, but this is not guaranteed. We have witnessed rapid inflation over the past period, and now we are forecasting a recovery. We expect an economic recovery through investment,” he said.
Kammer says fiscal action needs to be taken to meet spending needs related to climate and other areas.
“We look at where Europe is now in terms of global levels of production and wealth. In terms of GDP per capita and purchasing power, Europe is 1/3 lower than the US. But this was not always the case. This is mainly due to with lower productivity in Europe compared to the US, this means Europe needs to focus on this indicator to close this gap with the US,” he said.
Kammer noted that Europe will face many obstacles to productivity growth and will not be able to close the gap over the forecast horizon.
“More action is therefore needed and we recommend that Europe focus on deepening the single market. The single market drove growth in the 1990s and there is still much to be done in terms of further integration. It is not just about capital markets and banking union, but and on cross-border infrastructure. When we did the study, the goal was to reduce these barriers to the single market by 10 percentage points. The result would be a 7 percent increase in GDP, which is a big number,” he said.
Kammer believes that deepening the single market will also be a response to a more difficult economic situation, as Europe looks to make the single market more resilient by deepening it and making the economy more resilient.
It should be noted that on April 15, the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group started in Washington.
Major ministerial meetings and events will be held April 17-19, and other meetings will be held April 15-20.
Key events include meetings of the Development Committee and the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the IMF, which discuss the progress of the work of the World Bank Group and the IMF.
The Spring Meetings bring together central bankers, finance and development ministers, parliamentarians, private sector representatives, civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the global economy, poverty eradication, and economic development.
Subscribe to our WhatsApp channel and stay up to date with the main news!