The European economy is set to grow by less than 2 per cent both this year and next year, according to a new report by economists at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). But the risks to growth are clearly weighted to the downside, the report said. The main scenario in the latest edition of PwC's regular European Economic Outlook publication is that growth in western Europe will fall from 3.3 per cent in 2000 to around 1.75 per cent in 2001. After allowing for the potential knock-on effects of recent events in the US, which occurred after much of the detailed analysis of the report was completed, latest estimates suggest that European growth is also likely to remain below 2 per cent on average in 2002.