EU Cuts Growth Forecasts For Eurozone On Global Trade Tensions

The European Commission slashed its growth forecast for the eurozone Thursday due to global trade tensions weighing on the region and limiting economic expansion.

The 19-member region is now set to grow at a pace of 1.1% this year and 1.2% in 2020, CNBC reported. 

“The fact that growth is no longer expected to rebound meaningfully in the next two years is a major shift compared to previous forecasts and is based on the assessment that many features of the global slowdown will be persistent,” the European Commission said Thursday in its Autumn Economic Forecasts. 

“Most importantly, the surge in trade tensions and record-high uncertainty about trade policies is likely to have inflicted lasting damage to world trade,” the Commission added.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy, and it is teetering on the edge of contraction, with growth slowing across the eurozone.

Last month, Germany released weak economic data that showed a fall in employment that was mainly the result of job losses in the manufacturing sector

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