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Economic competitiveness becoming top European concern

    • A worker standing at a construction site in Vienna. There is no denying that lists of the top global technology companies, the world’s top universities, or semiconductor manufacturing capacity, tend to show Europe falling behind.
    • A worker standing at a construction site in Vienna. There is no denying that lists of the top global technology companies, the world’s top universities, or semiconductor manufacturing capacity, tend to show Europe falling behind. PHOTO: PIXABAY
    Published Tue, Mar 19, 2024 · 05:00 AM

    GOING by media airtime and column inches, many might conclude that the biggest challenge facing Europe at the moment is the Ukraine war. Yet, a growing number of senior political leaders across the region perceive an even more significant, medium to longer-term problem of an economic nature.

    That is, Europe’s apparent significantly declining competitiveness vis-a-vis other key world powers, especially the United States. In 2008, the EU economy was larger than that of the United States: US$16.2 trillion versus the latter’s US$14.7 trillion.

    Yet by 2023, the US economy had grown to over US$25 trillion, whereas the EU and the UK economies together had only reached about US$20 trillion. As Christian Ulbrich, chief executive officer of JLL, a global real estate services firm, has commented, Europe’s “wealth is melting away at rapid speed”.

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