Central Bank chief urges EU reform

EU structural reform is urgently required to halt loss of productivity in the eurozone economies, warned Central Bank Governor, John Hurley, yesterday.

“The failure of productivity levels to catch up with those in the US represents a crucial challenge for European policy makers,” Mr Hurley told the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants in Dublin.

He warned that many of the goals set out in the Lisbon Agenda, to turn European into the world’s most competitive and knowledge based economy, looked unrealistic.