ECB's Draghi: It is a priority today in the euro area to address weak productivity growth

Key highlights from Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, at the joint conference by the ECB and the MIT Lab for Innovation Science and Policy “Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Euro area”.

• Higher productivity growth is vital to safeguard Europe’s economic model
• Productivity growth depends not only on the creation of new ideas but also on and their diffusion
• To raise productivity growth, which has slowed in the euro area and in many other economies in recent years, we need to focus on both areas.
• We clearly have potential to boost innovative capacity in the euro area
• According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Indicator, only three euro area countries are in the world top ten for innovation
• The performance of euro area businesses at the global frontier is on a par with businesses in other developed economies
• There is potential to improve education systems in the euro area 
• Investment in intangibles also appears low in the euro area compared with a number of other advanced economies