Escalating global trade tensions and skills shortages a risk for the EU economy

The danger of escalating trade conflicts is a key risk for the economic grow. It could reduce global GDP by almost 1% in 2020. At the same time, digitalisation is rapidly increasing and the demand for digitally skilled workers is not met. These are key concerns reported by BusinessEurope member federations in the Economic Outlook Autumn 2018, published today. “We need more skilled labour to avoid harm to the EU economy. We also see that with digitalisation, more jobs will be added than lost”, Director General Markus J. Beyrer said at today’s Macroeconomic Dialogue meeting, referring to the Outlook. The analysis shows that we can expect EU growth of 2.2% for 2018 and 2% for 2019. “We need wide-ranging reforms in product and labour markets in order to raise the EU’s underlying capacity to grow”, Beyrer added.

Check here:

• the Economic Outlook Autumn 2018
• the video message with Markus J. Beyrer
• the press release issued on the occasion