Latest news with #Demographics
Bloomberg
7 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump's Interest Rate Obstacle Is Bigger Than Powell
Economics The Big Take Higher rates are the result of far more than Fed decisions. Debt, demographics, and deglobalization are all driving the price of money up. By President Donald Trump wants lower interest rates. Achieving that objective will require overcoming bigger obstacles than Fed Chair Jerome Powell. There are structural forces that drive the cost of borrowing, and right now they're pointing up. Governments and businesses are piling on debt to pay for tax cuts, military spending, and AI investments — which means more demand for credit. As the Baby Boomers retire and China decouples from the US, the pool of saving to finance those loans is drying up.
Telegraph
12-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Immigration was sole driver of EU population growth last year
Immigration was the sole driver of population growth in the European Union last year as deaths continued to outstrip births in the bloc. The EU's statistics agency said the population reached a record 450.4m people on January 1 2025, about 1m more than last year. But more people have died than were born in the EU every year since 2012, Eurostat said, which meant the only reason the population had grown was immigration. 'The total increase that was recorded in 2024 for the EU population was exclusively due to [positive] net migration,' Eurostat said. 'The observed population growth can be largely attributed to the increased migratory movements post-Covid-19.' A net migration of 2.3m people compensated for a 'natural decline' of 1.3m people in 2024, leading to the increase in population of 1.07m new residents. There were 4.82m deaths in the EU last year, which continued to outnumber the 3.56m births in the bloc. Eurostat said that unless birth rates increased, 'the EU's overall population decline or growth in the future is likely to depend largely on the contribution made by net migration.' France, Germany and Italy are the three EU counties with the largest population. They account for 47 per cent of all people living in the bloc. Germany is the most populous, with 83.6m people. The least populous EU state is 0.6m people-strong Malta. In 1960, the EU's population was 354.5m, meaning it has grown by 95.9m people in the years since then. The data highlights Europe's looming demographic crisis. More immigration will be necessary to compensate for low birth rates and ageing populations, which will put pressure on care and welfare and cause labour shortages. However, many EU governments are cracking down on illegal immigration, amid voter concerns over asylum that have swung the EU to the Right. The EU's border agency Frontex reported 75 900 illegal crossings into the bloc in the first half of this year. Migration has driven population growth in the EU since 2011, when birth rates first fell below death rates. The EU population dropped during the Covid pandemic in 2021 because migration was affected by closed borders and travel restrictions. However, it began increasing again in 2022 because of net migration, which is a trend that has continued. It is the fourth consecutive year the population has grown. The population in 19 of the EU's 27 member countries increased last year. Numbers declined in eight states. The highest growth rate was in Malta, with an increase of 19.0 per 1,000 people. It was followed by Ireland with 16.3 and Luxembourg at 14.7. The population dropped -9.9 in Latvia and -4.7 in Hungary, which were the two steepest falls in Europe. Hungary has some of the EU's most restrictive immigration laws. Poland and Estonia both recorded drops of -3.4, according to Eurostat. Deaths outnumbered births in 20 EU countries. Denmark is the only country where there were the same amount of births and deaths. There were more births than deaths in Ireland, France, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Sweden in 2024. Those six countries also recorded a net migration increase, further boosting the population. Every EU country had positive rates of net migration with the highest being Malta (18.7 per 1 000 people) Portugal (13.4) and Ireland (12.8). In 13 countries (Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland), positive net migration was the driver of population growth because death rates outstripped birth rates. Migration rates were not high enough to prevent a fall in the population in 2024 in Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Latvia was the only country which had both negative natural change and negative net migration.
