FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank tweaked its inflation and growth projections on Thursday, making only small changes and continuing to predict a slow but steady recovery in the coming years.
With a global trade war still weighing on confidence, Europe’s vast industrial sector has struggled throughout the year. But recent data suggested that growth has bottomed out and Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, avoided a widely predicted recession.
Risks to the outlook nevertheless remain skewed to the downside, ECB President Christine Lagarde told a news conference, pointing to geopolitical uncertainty, protectionism and vulnerabilities in emerging markets as key risks.
The following are the ECB staff’s new projections for inflation and GDP growth, with September forecasts in brackets. The ECB also made its initial projections for 2022.
The ECB updates projections once a quarter.
Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Catherine Evans
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.