FRANKFURT (AFX) - The anticipated slowdown in euro zone growth will be sharper this year than the EU Commission and the ECB are forecasting, the Financial Times Deutschland reported, quoting the first joint report of the "Euroframe" economic institutes.
FT Deutschland said that it had obtained a copy of the report in which the seven Euroframe institutes forecast growth of just 2.8 pct this year and 2.7 pct in 2002.
That would represent a substantial slowdown from estimated growth of 3.4 pct last year, the institutes said.
"Our forecasts are 0.3 percentage points lower than the projections of the Commission and the European Central Bank," FT Deutschland quoted the report as saying.
Nevertheless, the euro zone economy will still put in a better performance than the U.S. economy, where growth will dwindle to just 2.6 pct this year from an estimated 5.1 pct in 2001, the institutes noted.
The seven "Euroframe" institutes are the German institutes DIW and IW, Wifo in Austria, Etla in Finland, OFCE in France, Prometeia in Italy and NIESR in Britain.
Their report was scheduled to be presented at a hearing of the economic committee of the European Parliament in Brussels later today.
ECB chief economist Otmar Issing was also scheduled to attend the hearing.