ECB ups 2017 GDP forecast, hails migrants, women's contribution

(ANSA) - Rome, September 21 - The European Central Bank on Thursday revised its eurozone real GDP growth forecast for 2017 up to 2.2% from 1.9% and credited the contributed of migrants and women for boosting the labour force. "Immigration has made a large positive contribution to the working age population during the recovery, reflecting primarily the inflow of workers from new EU Member States," the ECB said in its economic bulletin. "This is likely to also have had a significant impact on the labour force, particularly in Germany and Italy, but also in some smaller euro area economies...
    "Continuing a long-term trend, the increase in the labour force during the economic recovery has been driven by the participation of women. "While the increasing share of the older age groups is characteristic of both genders, for women, growth in the participation rate over the course of the recovery has been larger and the decline in the prime-age labour force has been smaller".