Employment is the “weak link” in balancing the budget

Employment is the “weak link” in balancing the budget

If Belgium doesn’t get more people back into work it won’t be able to balance the budget, deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) said while appearing on TV program VTM on Sunday. The Flemish Liberal focused on employment among young people in big cities and people aged over 55 in particular.

The Federal government recently decided to delay balancing the budget by a year, to 2019. Charles Michel’s government wants to save several billion euros through next year’s budget. Estimates say they want to save around 5 to 6 billion euros.

It is doable “on condition that it is done the right way”, Mr De Croo said. He thinks not enough people are working in Belgium, and that is the “weak link” in balancing the budget.

If they don’t manage to change that, “we will never balance the budget”, he added.

Alexander De Croo said “digitalisation” could help create jobs, on condition that it is used in an intelligent way, especially in banking.

(Source: Belga)


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