OECD / Europe’s youth is explosive issue, not deflation

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary General Angel Gurria said youth unemployment is an “explosive’” issue for Europe.

“The problem is jobs, jobs, jobs,” Gurria said in an interview with Bloomberg Television from Davos, Switzerland. “There is nothing politically more explosive, more dangerous and more destabilizing than having a whole generation of young people being very frustrated.”

While the euro area exited its longest-ever recession last year and economic confidence is increasing, the nascent recovery has yet to generate jobs. The 18-nation bloc’s unemployment rate has been stuck at 12.1 percent since April and almost a quarter of the region’s youth is looking for work.

“The question of inequality” is one of the major topics being discussed by business leaders and politicians in Davos, Gurria said. “These divisions come from the labor market. Let’s take a hard look at the labor market.”

Gurria also said he doesn’t see deflation as an immediate threat in the euro area. The European Central Bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate in November in a bid to prevent slowing inflation from taking hold after the rate of price growth fell to a four-year low.

“I don’t see deflation as an imminent danger,” Gurria said.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via OECD Says Lack of Jobs for Europe’s Youth Is Explosive Issue – Bloomberg.

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