The expected slowing of euro-zone growth will be sharper this year than the EU Commission and the ECB are forecasting, the Financial Times Deutschlandreported today.
FT Deutschland said that it had obtained a copy of the first joint report of the "Euroframe" economic institutes in which the seven Euroframe institutes forecast growth of just 2.8 per cent this year and 2.7 per cent in 2002.
That would represent a substantial slowdown from estimated growth of 3.4 per cent last year, the institutes said.
"Our forecasts are 0.3 percentage points lower than the projections of the Commission and the European Central Bank," FT Deutschland quoted the report as saying.
Nevertheless, the euro-zone economy would still put in a better performance than the US economy for which growth would dwindle to just 2.6 per cent this year from an estimated 5.1 per cent in 2001, the institutes noted.
The seven "Euroframe" institutes are the German institutes DIW and IW, Wifo in Austria, Etla in Finland, OFCE in France, Prometeia in Italy and NIESR in Britain.
Their report was scheduled to be presented at a hearing of the economic committee of the European Parliament in Brussels later today.
AFP