Slow growth, high uncertainty and rising levels of inequality should prompt policy makers to take urgent action to achieve stronger, sustainable and more inclusive growth, according to the OECD’s annual Going for Growth report. Going for Growth 2019 points out that the weakening of growth comes at a time when globalisation, digitalisation, population ageing and environmental degradation are key forces shaping economic developments. To better manage these megatrends, governments must carefully select, prepare, prioritise and implement country-specific structural reforms that boost long-term growth,...

Greece has now entered a period of economic growth that puts it among the top performers in the eurozone. It must now persevere with efforts to address crisis legacies and pursue needed reforms to ensure continued success, says the IMF in its recent assessment of the country’s economy. As the IMF concludes its latest assessment on the state of the Greek economy, IMF Country Focus sat down with Peter Dohlman, IMF mission chief for Greece, to discuss the report's findings,...

Migration represents challenges and opportunities for Europe. Learn how the EU deals with refugee movements and asylum. The unprecedented arrival of refugees and irregular migrants in the EU, which peaked in 2015, required an EU response on a number of levels. Firstly, policies to handle regular and irregular immigration, and secondly, common EU-wide rules on asylum. The migrant influx also resulted in a need for additional measures and reforms to ensure border security as well as a fairer distribution of...

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, met in Montreal on 17-18 July 2019 for the 17th Canada-European Union Summit. They issued the following statement: The partnership between Canada and the European Union (EU) is deep and lasting, with its roots in shared values, a long history of close cooperation, and strong people-to-people ties. The Canada-EU Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) reflect our shared commitment...

By Yuanyan Sophia Zhang |  International Monetary Fund Wage rises have remained stubbornly low in advanced Europe in recent years, but, at the same time, newer EU members are experiencing rapid wage acceleration. This paper investigates the drivers of this wage divergence. Econometric analysis using error correction models suggests that wage growth responds more quickly to changes in unemployment in the newer EU members than in advanced Europe, where wages are more closely related to inflation and inflation expectations in the...

Governments worldwide provide more than USD 500 billion in often ineffective and trade distorting support to farmers each year, and efforts to reform these policies have largely stalled, according to a new OECD report. Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2019 shows that farm policies in the 53 countries studied in the report – all OECD and EU countries, plus 12 key emerging economies – provided on average USD 528 billion (EUR 465 billion) per-year of direct support to farmers during the...