The European Central Bank's latest in-house forecasts point to 2004 euro zone inflation of 1.8-1.9 per cent, the Financial Times Deutschlandreported this morning.
This would mark an upward revision from an unpublished 2004 inflation forecast of 1.6 per cent in September. The last published ECB forecasts were in June, when it said it expected inflation to slow to 1.3 per cent next year.
Despite the upward revision, the projection would still leave inflation in line with the ECB's target of a rate of below but close to 2 per cent.
The forecasts, which were presented to the ECB governing council meeting yesterday, point to 2005 inflation of 1.6-1.7 per cent, little changed from a projection of 1.6 per cent in September, the paper said.
Economic growth is expected to be 1.6-1.7 per cent next year and 2.3-2.4 per cent in 2005. This compares with forecasts of 1.5 and 2.5 per cent respectively in September.
The forecasts will be published in the ECB's monthly bulletin next Thursday, and the newspaper said they could still be subject to small changes between now and then.
AFP