On February 15, 2022, the EU is acting on its space ambitions by tabling two initiatives - a proposal for a Regulation on a space-based secure connectivity and a Joint Communication on an EU approach on Space Traffic Management (STM). Space technology is essential for facilitating our daily lives, contributing to a more digital, green and resilient future for our planet. As a major space power, the EU's Space Programme already provides valuable data and services for a wide...

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By Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director | Atlantic Council, Washington, DC | Ladies and gentlemen, friends, Let me start by thanking the Atlantic Council for providing a fitting venue to discuss central banks’ forays into Digital Currencies. Since its founding in 1961, the Council has made important contributions to strategic, political, and economic policy debates. Those debates have served us well, helping us to test the boundaries of our thinking and be better prepared for what lies ahead. So, today, we aim to...

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Eswar S. Prasad explains how technology is transforming the nature of money and how that will affect our lives | In his latest book, The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance, the Cornell University professor describes how digital currencies and other financial technologies are reshaping everything from consumer banking to monetary policy and international payments. In a conversation with F&D’s Chris Wellisz, Prasad lays out the advantages and perils of the new forms of...

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The new European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) today presents its first annual work plan, which will have a budget of €1.3 billion in 2022 to prevent, prepare for and rapidly respond to cross-border health emergencies. Following the adoption of the 2022 work plan by the HERA Board, HERA can now start implementing actions to strengthen preparedness and response capabilities within the EU, address vulnerabilities and strategic dependencies and contribute to reinforcing the global health emergency architecture. Announcing...

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After headline inflation had already reached very high levels in the United States in the first half of 2021, euro area inflation also recorded a very rapid increase in the second half of the year but remained much lower than in the United States. Comparing inflation developments in both economic areas could help to separate idiosyncratic factors from those related to the cyclical position, taking into account the fact that the euro area is lagging the US cycle. By...

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'Using an alternative measure may help separate the signal from the noise.' Economists debating inflation in the United States are confronting a difficult challenge: stripping out volatile price changes to gauge underlying pressures. The most common measure of underlying or “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, has been hard to read during the pandemic. The traditional measure came into wider use in the 1970s, when volatile energy prices caused inflation spikes. Our research shows that...

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Following the agreement reached in October 2021 by over 135 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS to a two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from digitalisation and globalisation of the economy, work on the implementation of the two-pillar plan is well underway. As part of this next phase, the Inclusive Framework will consult stakeholders on a number of aspects of Pillar One and Pillar Two over the coming months. Pillar One For Amount A of Pillar One,...

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In ordinary times, Europeans save around 12 percent of their income. But as families stayed at home and furlough schemes supported income during the pandemic, this savings rate increased sharply to almost 19 percent in 2020 and 2021. As shown in this Chart of the Week, we estimate that households in the euro area saved nearly 1 trillion euros more in those two years than they would have done if the pandemic never happened. In other words, people saved a...

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The Winter 2022 Economic Forecast projects that, following a notable expansion by 5.3% in 2021, the EU economy will grow by 4.0% in 2022 and 2.8% in 2023. Growth in the euro area is also expected at 4.0% in 2022, moderating to 2.7% in 2023. The EU as a whole reached its pre-pandemic level of GDP in the third quarter of 2021 and all Member States are projected to have passed this milestone by the end of 2022. Economic growth...

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Why a European Chips Act? Semiconductor chips are the essential building blocks of digital and digitised products. From smartphones and cars, through critical applications and infrastructures for healthcare, energy, communications and industrial automation, chips are central to the modern digital economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a weakness in the eco-system within both Europe and other regions in the world experiencing significant shortages of chips. EU industries manufacture many types of high-tech products, of which chips are essential parts. Europe must...

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