The European economy has lost momentum this year against the background of a high cost of living, weak external demand and monetary tightening. While economic activity is expected to gradually recover going forward, the European Commission's Autumn Forecast revises EU GDP growth down compared to its summer projections. Inflation is estimated to have dropped to a two-year low in the euro area in October and is set to continue declining over the forecast horizon. Growth has lost momentum, but a...

Read more

On November 17, Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on revising EU procedures and control measures for waste shipments. The agreed law aims to protect the environment and human health more effectively, while contributing to achieve the EU’s climate neutrality, circular economy and zero pollution goals. Strengthening the rules governing exports of waste outside the EU EU exports of certain non-hazardous wastes and mixtures of non-hazardous wastes for recovery (i. e. to be used for other purposes) will be allowed...

Read more

On 16 November, EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra met China's Special Envoy on Climate Change, Xie Zhenhua, in Beijing, to prepare for the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai. In a frank and constructive exchange, they agreed to increase cooperation on tackling the climate crisis, which no single country can solve on its own. Both parties wholeheartedly underlined that climate science shows the urgency of action in this decade to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement....

Read more

Keynote address of Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director at Singapore Fintech Festival |  President Tharman, excellencies, distinguished guests: good morning! It’s a pleasure to be in Singapore again. And it’s an honor to join you this morning at this impressive forum to take stock of how far we’ve come and set the course for the future. There is no better place to look into this future than Singapore — a place where fintech flourishes and where this festival brings the unlimited...

Read more

The ECB Blog looked at how communication has become a key factor for the transmission of a central bank’s policies in a recent post. Central banks exercise a profound influence on what occurs in the economy through what they say. While banks and financial institutions hang on to their every word as decisions affect financing conditions and the economy, the wider public – which is certainly not less affected by monetary policy decisions - follows the communication of central banks indirectly,...

Read more

Although geopolitical risks and their effects on global production and trade are much debated, little empirical evidence has emerged of increased fragmentation in global value chains. Disruption caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Russian war against Ukraine and increased geopolitical tensions across the board raise questions about whether we are witnessing a trend towards deglobalisation. Most analysis to date does not find evidence of significant changes in aggregate European trade patterns. Nonetheless, the ways that firms are adjusting...

Read more

Blog post by Clémence Berson and Vasco Botelho, Senior Economists | The euro area labour market is in pretty good shape despite the recent economic shocks. The share of people in the labour force has never been higher. Who are these new workers? We find that the labour force has changed quite a bit in terms of gender, age, education level and national origin over the last two decades. But first, let’s look at more recent developments. When the pandemic...

Read more

After having dealt successfully with the challenges of the pandemic and the energy price shock triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe faces the difficult task of restoring price stability while securing strong and green growth over the longer term. Global shifts from geoeconomic fragmentation and the current impact of climate change have introduced new economic challenges that add to long-standing growth problems and could stall convergence. Cooling headline inflation is providing some relief to households and firms. Easing commodity...

Read more

What is Combined Transport Directive and why do we need this Directive? The Combined Transport Directive (92/106/EEC) is one of the key EU legal instruments that directly aim at reducing the negative externalities of freight transport, such as CO2 and other emissions, congestion, noise and accidents, by supporting a shift from long-distance road transport to rail, inland waterways and maritime transport. Road transport is responsible for the majority of negative externalities in transport in the EU, both because it is by...

Read more

Blog post by Zeina Hasna, Florence Jaumotte, Jaden Kim, Samuel Pienknagura and Gregor Schwerhoff |  Making low-carbon technologies cheaper and more widely available is crucial to reducing harmful emissions. We have seen decades of progress in green innovation for mitigation and adaptation: from electric cars and clean hydrogen to renewable energy and battery storage. More recently though, momentum in green innovation has slowed. And promising technologies aren’t spreading fast enough to lower-income countries, where they can be especially helpful to...

Read more