Western Europe is “losing” the economic competition with its main rivals, China and the US, and is struggling with a shortage of globally competitive companies, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said.
Since 2022, when the EU imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian energy over the Ukraine conflict, growth across the bloc has stagnated. Germany, once its economic powerhouse, is now experiencing its third year of economic downturn.
Moscow has argued that EU restrictions are self-defeating, causing surging energy prices and weakening the bloc’s economy.
Dimon, CEO of one of the world’s largest banks, cautioned EU leaders at an event in Dublin hosted by the Irish Foreign Ministry on Thursday that Europe has lost its competitive edge compared to the US and is facing a growing crisis in economic competitiveness.
“You’re losing,” he said. “Europe has gone from 90% [of] US GDP to 65% over 10 or 15 years.”
“We’ve got this huge strong market and our companies are big and successful, have huge kinds of scale that are global. You have that, but less and less.”
The JP Morgan boss has repeatedly expressed concerns about the state of Europe’s economy.
Earlier this year, Dimon told Financial Times that Europe needed to “do more” to remain competitive, noting that GDP per person had dropped from around 70% of America’s to 50%, which he deemed “not sustainable.”
Dimon’s warning comes as European NATO members say they need to ramp up their military budgets to deter an alleged threat from Russia.
NATO countries have recently pledged to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade, more than double the longstanding target of 2%.
Moscow denies posing any danger to these nations, accusing Western officials of exploiting fear to rationalize budget increases and cover a decline in living standards.
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