Brussels, 10/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - Because of weak demand, lack of momentum in the US economy and uncertainty related to the war on Iraq, the European Commission cuts its growth forecasts for the eurozone for the first and second quarters of 2003 on Thursday. The Commission forecasts euro area quarterly GDP growth of between -0.2 and 0.2% for the first quarter and between 0.1 and 0.4% for the second quarter of 2003 (compared with previous forecasts of growth of between +0.2% and +0.5%). The Commission says renewed weakness in domestic demand, as captured by car registrations, explain the downward revision for the first quarter while for the second quarter of 2003, the "downward revision compared to the previous release is due to the lack of momentum in the US economy. These forecasts are surrounded by an unusual degree of uncertainty related to the war in Iraq."
On the same day, Eurostat published estimations of GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2002. Eurostat reports that growth in the eurozone reached 0.1% and in the EU15 by 0.2% during the fourth quarter of 2002. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2001, eurozone GDP rose by 1.3% and EU15 GDP by 1.4%. Over the course of 2002, Eurozone GDP rose by 0.8% and EU15 GDP by 1.0% (compared with 1.4% and 1.5% respectively in 2001).