Economic growth in the eurozone will halve in the next two decades unless it implements reform, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned yesterday. The Paris-based body charged with improving the economic performance of its 30 member bodies said: "Structural reform is needed to boost growth prospects and resume economic convergence with the OECD's best performers."

Without reform, "population ageing implies that the euro area's potential output growth is set to decelerate and the income gap with the US to widen considerably", the OECD said in its biennial study of the region.