ECB’s Nagel: Productivity Growth Could Benefit from Digitalisation

24 June 2024

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Joachim Nagel on Tuesday said that productivity could be strengthened with further digitalisation.

In a speech at a cyber conference in Frankfurt, the text of which was posted on the website of the German Bundesbank, which he heads, Nagel said, ‘The digital sectors offer a great opportunity for higher productivity growth. At the turn of the millennium, these made a significant contribution to strengthening productivity.’

Efficiency gains in the digital sectors had slowed down over the past 15 years, he said, and now was the time to leverage opportunities of further digitalisation, particularly in Germany.

‘For us at the Bundesbank, digitalisation is first and foremost one of the most important potential growth drivers for our economy’, he said. ‘In view of increasing bottlenecks on the labour market – keyword demographic change – we are dependent on productivity growth if we want to maintain our prosperity.’

Investment in digitalisation should come both from the private and the public sector, he said.