Brussels, 10/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - Assessment of the current economic situation and the prospects for recovery remains uncertain. The spokeswoman for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Wednesday 10 December that “the risks that we identified in our autumn economic forecasts … are clearly coming to pass”. She said the Commissioner felt that swift implementation of the Commission's recovery plan would allow “growth to restart at the end of 2009”. President of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker said he thought that the economic crisis would be strongly felt for longer. “I am assuming that this is a deep economic crisis and that we will need years to get out of it,” he opined, quoted by Austrian press agency APA. “My personal projection would be that we will have positive growth again in 2011 in the EU,” Juncker added.
Bringing forward the publication of its interim forecasts by a few weeks, the Commission will present updated information on future prospects on 19 January. It will, above, all provide broader information than in previous forecasts (which usually deal only with growth and inflation in the major economies), and will look at all EU member states and also deficit and debt levels. On the basis of this information, the Commission will then decide whether or not to begin excessive debt procedures. (A.B./transl.rt)