The European Commission has trimmed its euro zone economic growth forecasts.
It is now predicting growth of 0.4-0.8% in the first quarter of 2006, 0.3-0.8% in the second quarter and 0.2-0.8% in the third quarter.
Last month, the commission had estimated that the euro zone economy would grow by 0.4-0.9% in the first, second and third quarters.
Despite the downward revision, the forecasts would mark an improvement from the final quarter of 2005, when growth was only 0.3%, according to data published separately this morning by the EU's Eurostat data agency.
But for the whole of 2005, Eurostat stuck with an earlier estimate that the euro zone economy grew 1.3%, slowing from a rate of 2.1% in 2004.
