Bundesbank president Ernst Welteke has warned that the eurozone economy remains open to further downside risks In a speech delivered at the Svedbank in Sweden this morning, he also said that European Central Bank forecasts for 2003 may not be met "The risks of the economy tend to be - I am sorry to say - on the downside," Welteke said. He added that the European Central Bank's expectation that growth rates will pick up and return to potential during the course of 2003 is "subject to a great deal of uncertainty."
The ECB defines potential growth as a range of 2-2.5pc. At 1015, the euro was trading at USD1.0119 against the dollar and at 63.72p sterling. The single currency is holding onto its overnight gains despite the downbeat comments after the central bank revised upward German manufacturing orders for September Although the revised figure from the Bundesbank still shows that factory orders fell for the third time in four months in September, the bank said the drop was just 0.97pc. This is far better than the 2.5pc provisional figure //www.fxcentre.com