MNI BRIEF: ECB Lagarde Warns of Increasing China Competition
MNI (LONDON) - Europe faces significantly stronger economic competition than the U.S. from China intraditional areas of strength, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Monday.
Addressing a conference in Paris about the risks of the EU falling behind global superpowers, Lagarde highlighted the need to address structural challenges. The EU’s share of global trade is declining, with “a notable fall since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lagarde said. She pointed to ECB analysis showing that the share of sectors in which China competes directly with euro area exports has “almost doubled to nearly 40% since 2002.”
Lagarde also noted that Europe is lagging in emerging technologies such as AI, caught in what she referred to as “a middle technology trap.” She emphasised that removing internal trade barriers in the single market could help boost growth and competitiveness, while enabling European savings to be redirected towards more innovative investments within the bloc.