EU recovery to accelerate, growth forecast lowered
AFP, Ireland
The 12-nation eurozone's economic recovery should accelerate this year, finance ministers said Friday, while the European Commission indicated growth could be less robust than expected. The global upturn should help the zone sharing Europe's single currency to pull out of a prolonged slump, the ministers said. "The economies of Europe which have been recovering tentatively up to now, should gather momentum over the course of 2004, helped by the global upturn and the expected strengthening in domestic demand," they said in a statement. But EU monetary affairs commissioner Pedro Solbes indicated a possible lowering of expected growth over the year for the eurozone, which comprises the 15 countries of the European Union apart from Britain, Sweden and Denmark. Solbes, speaking after the meeting of eurozone ministers, said the forecast will be "broadly unchanged, with a possible downward revision of 0.1 percentage points to 1.7 percent." In its most recent prediction last October the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, predicted 2004 growth of 1.8 percent.
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