The US has outpaced Europe in the fight for investment, analysis from Insurance and Pension Denmark (I&P Denmark) has suggested, as it urged the EU to "get back on track" for growth.

It found a significant shift in the weighting of pension companies' investments in Denmark, which meant that the USA was now the second-largest investment area.

I&P Denmark said that if you had DKK 100,000 invested in the American technology exchange Nasdaq in 2010, the money would have grown to DKK 821,000 today.

In comparison, DKK 100,000 invested in the European stock index would have grown to approximately DKK 219,000.

The sharp price increases in US stocks in recent years have contributed to the fact that every fourth Danish pension krone is now invested in the US.

“This was a place previously reserved for Europe,” said I&P Denmark CEO, Kent Damsgaard.

“And this shift is due solely to the fact that the conditions for a good return have been better in the USA,” he claimed.

The analysis from I&P Denmark showed that as more was invested in the US than in the EU, the US capital stock expanded and was maintained.

This meant that productivity and employment had grown more in the US than in the EU, making the US a more attractive place to invest.

To address this trend, the ‘Draghi Report,’ officially titled The Future of European Competitiveness, was commissioned by the European Commission and authored by former European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi.

It focused on boosting EU growth and competitiveness through strategic actions.

In the report, Draghi made several recommendations to get the EU 'back on track' for growth, which he claimed would require €750-800bn annually until 2030.

In support of this, I&P Denmark presented three concrete proposals for more private investment in Europe: solvency discounts for strategically important infrastructure and key sectors, including the defence industry; new models for investing in smaller companies—including "first loss" mechanisms in Europe; and the possibility of securitisation, which frees up capital for companies by allowing banks to assemble "packaged loans" for investors.

"Europe is at a crossroads,” Damsgaard continued, “and the need to strengthen our economic growth and solidify our position in the new geopolitical landscape is enormous.

"And a very large part of the answer to Europe's problems is ‘invest, invest, invest.’

"This requires the EU and the member states together to rise in the competition for private capital," he added.

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