By David Thomas and Leen Van Parys, BridgeNews
Brussels, March 12 (BridgeNews) - Belgium Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Didier Reynders insisted Monday that the U.S. economic slowdown was of concern to euro-zone finance ministers who met here Sunday night, but stressed that the crisis in Japan's financial sector was even more of a worry.
"We are concerned about the evolution in the U.S. and perhaps more for the financial sector in Japan," Reynders told reporters here Monday morning.
* * * However, Reynders stressed that euro-zone finance ministers were confident that the zone was "armed to resist" the effects of slowing growth on their own economies, so long as the area maintained a "good capacity for internal growth of around 3%."
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes said he saw the U.S. economic recovery happening "more or less quickly in the second half" of 2001. There was a "pretty good chance" that the zone could still meet the growth forecast for this year and next, made by the Commission last autumn, "of around 3%," he added.
That confidence was supported by Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser.
Juncker said 3% growth was realistic for the zone and warned against constant revisions to growth prospects on an almost monthly basis.
Grasser also said 3% ought to be realistic. Grasser said he was quite confident about the possibility of a U.S. soft landing and said the euro zone would continue to see sustainable and good growth.
Reynders insisted that there were no differences among the finance ministers on their confidence about the zone growth outlook, despite comments from the Greek Finance Minister Yannos Papantoniou who suggested 3% growth in the zone this year might be too optimistic. Reynders said the EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the ministers all shared the same confidence on growth. End