Belgium Economic Snapshot

Belgium’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has been robust thanks to extensive policy support. However, the new shock from the war in Ukraine is exacerbating inflation, and supply and labour market shortages, highlighting the importance of boosting the resilience of the Belgian economy. Medium-term fiscal sustainability challenges should be addressed by limiting early exit possibilities from the labour market, improving the efficiency of public spending, in particular through spending reviews, and boosting the coordination of fiscal policies by all levels of government to create room for public investment. 

• Addressing medium-term fiscal challenges to address future shocks in Belgium, Blog post
• Press release
• Read the survey online
• Previous surveys

Growth will continue to slow due to heightened uncertainty, but will remain robust at 2.4% in 2022, before falling to 1% in 2023. Domestic demand will be supported by automatic wage indexation, energy support measures and continued growth in employment. The unemployment rate is projected to stay above 6%. Headline inflation will start subsiding through the second half of 2022, but core inflation will remain high over the projection period.

• Access Belgium Projection Data
• Access Economic Outlook Digital Report

2021 Structural Reform Priorities

• Competition and regulation: Streamline regulations that hamper business dynamism and productivity growth
• Competition and regulation: Make the insolvency regime more conducive to reallocation of resources and productivity growth
• Labour market: Strengthen active labour market policies and training to reduce job-skill mismatch
• Labour market: Make wage setting more flexible
• Tax system: Reduce labour taxes to support employment

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