Brussels, 18/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that the EU's growth forecasts for 2005 may be scaled back from the forecasts made in April 2004. Bloomberg quotes a draft version of the report (to be published on 26 October), announcing revised growth forecasts of 2.1% (rather than 2.3% as forecast in April). The forecasts may be scaled back as a result of rising oil prices, a slowdown in US growth and the hike in the euro on the dollar, notes the document.
Jose Manuel Gonzales Paramo, a member of the ECB's Governing Council, is more optimistic. In the German newspaper Handelsblatt, he explains that while uncertainty due to the oil price hike and other mixed signals is continuing, he did not believe that the original forecasts would have to be revised since growth would continue. In September, the ECB raised its growth forecasts for 2005 to between 1.8% and 2.8% (see Europe of 3 September).