Presentation of the World Bank’s EU Regular Economic Report – Living Up to Potential in the Wake of Adverse Shocks

The EU Regular Economic Report discusses trends in inclusive growth in the EU over the past year, zooming in on a set of selected countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Poland. Both, short-term and long-term economic growth prospects will be presented. The report highlights the key risks to the near-term outlook and brings together the key anticipated structural trends in the EU over the next decade to construct a baseline for potential growth by 2030. Thereafter, it quantifies the impact of policy reform scenarios on potential growth. These reforms have been selected based on the most pressing needs for longer-term growth in the four focus countries, national targets and plans—with modeling constraints also a key consideration. These reforms include: (i) boosting labor force participation to counter the effects of an aging population; (ii) increasing the average years of education and focusing on job creation in lagging regions to support inclusion; (iii) improving EU fund absorption rate and the index of institutional quality to demonstrate the impact of strengthening institutions; (iv) undertaking green investment to support potential growth and the transition to net zero emissions; and (v) increasing research and development (R&D) spending to accelerate the digital transition. The report also quantifies the combined impact of these reforms and their effect on the convergence process.

Date
September 19, 2022 
3:30 p.m. – 05:00 p.m.

Venue
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Otto-Wagner-Platz 3
1090 Vienna
and online via Webex