The EU's economy will this year rise only by half of what its experts predicted and reach a "stand still" in 2009, according to a fresh forecast by the European Commission.

"GDP is expected to be 1.4 percent this year in the EU and 1.2 percent in the euro area. Less than half the outcome of 2006 and 2007," EU economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Monday as he was presenting the commission's autumn report on the economy to journalists in Brussels.

With the predicted figures for 2009 at a record low – the EU's GDP at 0.2 percent and 16-strong eurozone's at 0.1 percent - the "horizon is as dark as November weather in Brussels," he added.

Three EU countries are set to end up with economic contraction already this year: Ireland (-1.6% GDP), Estonia (-1.3%) and Latvia (-0.8%), with the UK (-1.0%) and Spain (-0.2%) set to join the list next year.

Most large EU economies are set to see minimum or no growth, a situation affecting France and Italy already ... Читати далі »

Finance ministers from the 15-strong euro area have agreed to drop the goal of balancing the budgetary deficits by 2010, while concluding that the bloc does not need an extra package similar to the bank rescue plan but aimed instead at kick-starting the faltering economy.

Meeting in Brussels on Monday (3 November) on the eve of a full EU ministerial session on finance, the ministers decided that their previous medium-term objective of zero deficits by the end of this decade - agreed in April 2007 - "should be revised".

Instead, the goal will be replaced by individual plans for member states "on a case-by-case basis at dates that will pushed back," Eurozone chair, Luxembourg's premier and finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, told journalists.

The debate took place just after the European Commission presented a grim economic forecast for 2008 and next two years, warning that in 2009, the EU's economy will reach a "stand still."

EU economy commissioner Jo ... Читати далі »