Öykü Altuntaş / Istanbul, Jan 20 () - The refugee inflows into Europe will grow GDP by a “positive but small” amount, if the burden is equally shared by states, said International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde at World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to the Telegraph’s report, Lagarde made a presentation on Jan. 20 on an IMF study addressing migrants, and noted “migrants would not bring down wages”
“The current surge in refugees is a challenge with an upside potential. With appropriate policies, this rich source of human capital can be harnessed with benefits for everyone” Lagarde said.
Lagarde’s statement underlined IMF findings demonstrating the “GDP will be lifted by about 0.05 percent, 0.09 percent and 0.13 percent for 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively”.
Also, the depressant effect of the flow on wages will be "temporary" according to the IMF chief.
IMF’s report makes accent on the “labour integration” and underlines that if refugees entering Europe manages to integrate into the labor market, the level of GDP could increase by around 0.25 percent by 2020 for the European Union. Meanwhile, in the three main destination countries of Austria, Germany, Sweden, this increase rate could be between 0.5 and 1.1 percent, said the report.
