hard landing well this year, mainly for "structural reasons," thereby leading to a reversal of the EMU-U.S. growth gap, a French economics think tank said Wednesday. While U.S. GDP growth is expected to drop to 1.5% in 2001 from 5.1% last year, growth in France -- as in Euroland as a whole -- is still seen averaging 2.5%, after 3.1% last year, said Philippe Lefournier, director of forecasts for the Expansion institute.