Europes faces more "difficult" quarters: ECB's B-Smaghi

ROME (Reuters) - The euro-zone's economy is unlikely to show a significant recovery in the next quarters after falling into recession between April and September, European Central Bank Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said.

"We have another two or three difficult quarters ahead of us," Bini Smaghi told a television current affairs program broadcast early on Saturday.

Data on Friday showed euro zone gross domestic product shrank 0.2 percent in the third quarter after an identical decline in the second, thus meeting the technical definition of recession -- two consecutive quarters of negative growth -- for the first time since the launch of the monetary union in 1999.

Bini Smaghi also said the 20 nations meeting in Washington on Saturday to discuss the global financial crisis were unlikely to agree substantial moves on policy.

"I don't think we will see any effective decisions," he said.