EU slashes euro-zone growth forecast to 1.3%, Italy only 0.2% - EUR/USD pressured

Yohay Elam FXStreet

The European Union cut the growth forecast of the euro-zone from 1.9% to only 1.3% in 2019. The fresh data is even worse for Italy, the third-largest economy. The European Commission sees a meager growth rate of 0.2% against 1.2% originally forecast. This may exacerbate the clash between Rome and Brussels on the budget.

German growth is now forecast to be 1.1% instead of 1.8%. French growth was cut down to 1.3% from 1.6%.

The inflation outlook has also been lowered: 1.4% in 2019 after 1.7% in 2018.

EUR/USD remains under pressure and battles 1.1340. Earlier, German Industrial Output came out with a drop against an increase that was expected for December.

The slowdown is becoming more evident and the European Central Bank may have to delay its planned rate hike to 2020.

Author

Yohay Elam

FXStreet

Yohay is in Forex since 2008 when he founded Forex Crunch, a blog crafted in his free time that turned into a fully-fledged currency website later sold to Finixio.

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