The International Monetary Fund has said advanced economies such as Britain, the US and Japan risk being overwhelmed by their ageing populations, and calls on them to throw open their borders to more migrant workers in response.
Within the next few decades, working-age adults will need to support double the number of elderly people than they do now, putting immense pressure on welfare systems and wiping out as much as 3% of potential economic output by 2050, the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report.
The Fund’s comments come as the number of migrant workers arriving in Britain from Europe is already in sharp decline following the Brexit vote almost two years ago, and as populist parties in many western countries push their governments to curb immigration.
The analytical chapters of its report, published on Monday, said: “Dramatic shifts in demographic structure projected in advanced economies could overwhelm the ability of policies to offset the forces of ageing.
“[This] underscores the need to rethink migration policies to boost labor supply in advanced economies.”
Without government intervention, the IMF said the current labour force participation rate, which estimates the number of people eligible for work who are in employment, could fall by as much as 5.5% on average across advanced economies over the next 30 years.
Net annual migration of EU nationals to Britain fell by 75,000 in the year to September, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, hitting the lowest level for five years. Company bosses have raised growing concerns about labour shortages as a result. [...]
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International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook, April 2018
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