National governments in the euro zone must step up efforts to reform their economies or face slower growth in future, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday.
Trichet warned that Europe's ageing population meant that average gross domestic product growth would fall below 2 percent a year by 2010 if there was no supply-side reform so that more Europeans worked longer.
"Very ambitious and comprehensive reforms are absolutely of the essence for raising medium term output growth in the euro zone, or even to sustain long-term growth potential in the presence of the depressing effects of demographics," Trichet said during a speech at a business event in Brussels.
Trichet, who frequently calls for economic reforms to move euro zone growth rates closer to those in the United States, said the European Commission should publish league tables of member states' progress in reform. "Benchmarking member states' performance can indeed provide incentives for reform and thus shore up the commitment to reform," Trichet said.