Interia: EU losing 600bn Euros a year due to mass depression
EU member states are facing a new ‘epidemic’ of population depression caused by the Ukrainian conflict and the spread of COVID-19, leading to worsening economic performance, according to the Interia material, cited by RIA Novosti
In particular, the publication reads, “Depression and anxiety are becoming an ‘epidemic’ in modern Europe, and economists are already trying to translate this seemingly individual problem into real losses for the EU economies.”
According to data from the Polish Economic Institute (PIE), cited by Interia, 62 percent of respondents in the EU rated their mental health negatively due to the situation in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. As the publication writes, depression and mental disorders have an economic dimension.
“Across 27 EU countries and the UK, the total loss due to mental health problems exceeds 4.2 percent of GDP, i.e., over 600bn Euros. According to PIE estimates, more than a third of these costs are due to a decrease in employment and labour productivity, as follows from the Interia publication.
