The European Commission said it does not expect 2002 GDP growth to exceed 1 per cent based on GDP data released today.
"They [the figures] also confirm our earlier announcement that growth this year is unlikely to exceed 1 per cent and that growth in 2003 will be revised downwards from the 2.9 per cent rate included in the commission's spring forecasts," it said in a statement.
"Their economic scenario also justifies Commission president Mr Romano Prodi and economic and monetary affairs commissioner Mr Pedro Solbes's decision to open the debate on the budgetary challenges in the euro area two weeks ago," the statement said.
The commission said today it has revised down its forecasts for both third quarter and fourth quarter euro zone GDP growth, compared with the previous quarters, to a range of 0.2-0.5 per cent against 0.3-0.6 per cent estimated on September 6th.
