Interview with Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, conducted by Eric Albert, Philippe Escande and Béatrice Madeline on 28 October 2024

31 October 2024

In September, former ECB President Mario Draghi published an alarming report on how the European economy is falling behind. Do you agree with this assessment?

Europe is falling behind. It’s true. And so is France. Mario Draghi’s report highlights the productivity gap, which is largely due to the tech sector. Tech players in Europe and the United States believe that the gap first emerged during the digital revolution that began in the mid-1990s.

The question now is whether the boost that the United States got from the mid-1990s will continue with artificial intelligence, the accumulation of data centres and the exploitation of these data. This is the key issue. In Europe we need to roll up our sleeves and make an effort to keep those companies that start out here and then develop themselves elsewhere. We need to try to make…