Europe should tap its own savings to fund AI innovation: ECB president

Europe should mobilize its own savings to finance artificial intelligence and other innovation within the bloc, rather than allow those funds to keep flowing to the United States to bankroll American technology development, according to Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB).

In an interview with China Media Group on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Bangkok, Thailand, Lagarde said artificial intelligence depends on significant financing -- from the brainpower behind the technology, to the capacity to innovate, to the ability to compute at super-fast speeds.

The ECB president explained how the companies leading the artificial intelligence race have financed their expansion, and argued that the region's savings should be channeled into its own innovation.

"When you look at how the hyperscalers are financing themselves at the moment, they relied on equity quite a bit. They relied on cash flow to begin with, then equity and now they essentially rely on debt and massive amounts of debt in order to finance their development. Europe is a big saver and that saving at the moment is traveling back to the U.S. and is actually feeding the development of innovation in the U.S. I think we should be in our right mind and understand that saving could be mobilized in Europe in order to help the development of innovative mechanisms in Europe," she said.

Lagarde also addressed the European Central Bank's cooperation with the People's Bank of China, describing the relationship between the two central banks as close and enduring.

"The Central Bank of China and the Central Bank of Europe of the euro area are cooperating actively. We have a memorandum of understanding that sets out the terms of our cooperation. We renewed the memorandum of understanding. We have swap lines between us. So there is a lot of cooperation between the two central banks and that will continue," she said.

The ECB and the People's Bank of China signed an updated memorandum of understanding in Beijing in June 2025, and their euro-renminbi currency swap arrangement was most recently extended in September 2025.

Europe should tap its own savings to fund AI innovation: ECB president

Residents in the United Kingdom are voicing growing concern over the government's newly launched national emergency preparedness campaign, as public anxiety drives a surge in purchases of essential household goods.

The British government launched its "Be Ready" campaign on Oct. 22, urging households to stock enough basic essentials to survive for 72 hours without external assistance, a campaign driven by heightened security concerns.

Following the launch, UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting warned that adversaries could launch an attack before 2030, as the government urged the public to stock up on emergency supplies, media reports said.

After the announcement, many residents expressed concerns over financial constraints and their ability to stock up.

"Not everyone can afford to stock up ahead of time. I work with a food race charity, and we help a lot of families and older isolated people with food on a weekly basis. They can't afford to stock up," said a resident.

Retail sales have jumped significantly since the announcement. One retailer reported a 160 percent weekly increase in radio sales, while another saw sales of torches surge by 284 percent, alongside a 92 percent rise in radios and a 106 percent increase in power banks, according to media reports.

Regarding the panic buying, some residents shared their thoughts on the need for calm purchasing.

"I mean, my honest opinion, I feel like it could be a little bit of a scandal, but it could also be true, because we see a lot of things on social media these days, and we don't ever know what's going to be true and what's not going to be true. If people were to stock up, please do it now instead of people panic buying. So then the situation deescalates, and people have a little bit more peace of mind," said another resident.

Visible shortages on supermarket shelves have heightened local anxieties about everyday disruption.

"I'm just so worried that I went into Waitrose [supermarket] the other day and all the shelves of tuna are gone, all the shelves of water are gone and you know we're not there yet. And when the Defense Secretary was talking about that, he actually said we should be preparing for three years' time," said a resident.

UK emergency preparedness campaign sparks panic buying, concerns