Frankfurt, March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank lowered its forecast for economic growth in the dozen nations sharing the euro, Market News International said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The forecasts are internal staff projections the ECB 18 policy makers had when they pared interest rates by a quarter point to 2.5 percent last Thursday, MNS said. The ECB declined to comment on the report.
The following is a table with the forecasts for 2003 and 2004, according to Market News. Previous estimates are in parentheses. 2003 2004 Inflation 2.0% (1.8%) 1.5% (1.6%) Economic growth 1.0% (1.6%) 2.0% (2.4%) //www.quote.bloomberg.com