(MENAFN- QNA) The European Union needs a major boost in investment to pick itself up from near-zero growth, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said Thursday.
Draghi's message, delivered at the Eurofi Financial Forum, came on the eve of informal talks in Milan between euro area finance ministers, expected to focus on possible steps to revive Europe's flagging economy, German Press Agency dpa reported.
"A decisive rise in investment is essential to bring inflation where we would want to see it, to kick-start the economy and to bring down unemployment," Draghi said, according to the published text of his speech.
"Investment has been one of the great casualties of the crisis," he said, noting that it had shrunk by 20 per cent since 2008, far more than the 15-per-cent reduction recorded in the wake of Europe's last major recession, in 1992.
"We will not see a sustainable recovery unless this changes," the ECB chief warned.
Dishing out policy advice, Draghi backed the idea of a "capital markets union" to give companies "more diversified sources of financing," and called for government guarantees to support lending to small and medium enterprises.
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