Brussels, 04/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the publication of its half-yearly forecasts, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Thursday announced growth in the euro zone of 2.6% for 2001, down on its last quarterly forecasts where it predicted growth of 3.1% for Euroland. These figures do, however, remain higher than those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which predict a growth of 2.4%. Cautious in view of a slowdown in the economy, it considers that growth in 2002 will be 2.7%. It predicts no resumption of growth in the United States or in Japan and believes that the EU will be less affected by the slowdown in activities in the United States than the rest of the world. In addition, the OECD predicts a cut in interest rates by the ECB by the summer. The current key-rate is 4.75% and the expected cut is 0.5 points.