Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Reuters) -tack of foreign workers has stimulated the economy of the euro zone in recent years, helping to compensate for the reduction in working time and the decrease in real wages, said the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde on Saturday.
Despite a drop in births, immigration has enabled Europe to see its population increase to a record level with 450.4 million inhabitants in 2024, but the various governments have implemented policies to limit arrivals.
“Even if they represent only about 9% of the total labor force in 2022, foreign workers have contributed to half of growth in the past three years,” said Christine Lagarde, during a speech to the annual symposium of the Federal Reserve in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“Without this contribution, labor market conditions would be more tense and lower production.”
According to the president of the ECB, the German gross domestic product is approximately 6 % lower than that of 2019 and Christine Lagarde also attributes to the influx of foreign labor the good health of the Spanish economy since the end of the Cavid-19 pandemic.
Faced with electorates that are increasingly turning to far -right parties, several European capitals have taken measures to fight immigration.
The new German government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz has suspended family reunification and resettlement programs in order to attract part of the electorate of the alternative far right party for Germany (AFD).
(Report by Francesco Canepa; Zhifan Liu)
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