European Commission cuts 2015 eurozone growth, inflation forecasts
2014-05-05 15:54:27
Eurozone is experiencing a more lasting recovery and any risk of deflation remains very low, the European Commission said Monday.
In its Spring 2014 forecast, the executive-arm of the EU projected 1.7 percent GDP growth for 2015, which was lower than the 1.8 percent predicted in February. The growth forecast for this year was retained at 1.2 percent.
"Risks to the growth outlook remain tilted to the downside," the commission said.
Inflation projections were lowered for both this year and next. "HICP inflation could turn lower than envisaged in the central scenario, if labour market conditions and commodity prices turned out weaker than expected," the commission said.
"However, the probability of outright deflation, defined as a generalised and self-enforcing fall in prices in the euro area as a whole, remains very low."
The inflation forecast for 2015 was lowered to 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent. The projection for this year was cut to 0.8 percent from 1 percent.