IMF worried about youth emigration from Poland

The emigration of young skilled workers from eastern Europe [Poland] risks creating a vicious circle that damps the economy in their home countries, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund. In 2014, income per person figures in Poland was around 70 percent of the average across the EU’s 28 countries, when measured in terms of purchasing power. In the absence of determined and co-ordinated policies, there is a risk that emigration and slower income convergence may become mutually reinforcing, the IMF report stated. "If there had been no skilled emigration from eastern Europe between 1995 and 2012, the gap between these countries and the EU-wide average in terms of average income per person would have been 5 percentage points smaller," the IMF analysis showed. To reduce the adverse impact of emigration, the IMF suggests that eastern European countries [Poland] should focus on policies that encourage migrants to return, leverage remittances to boost investment and make better use of the remaining workforce. They also suggest that some of the EU budget could be used to offset the effects of emigration.