VIENNA, May 15 - European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaus Liebscher said that there was no need to revise the bank's 2003 euro zone growth forecast of one percent, despite weak first quarter data. "From today's perspective there is no need to revise the prognosis of around one percent," Liebscher said at a news conference at the annual meeting of the central bank of Austria, of which he is the president. Asked about a first estimate earlier on the day showing first quarter euro zone growth had been zero, Liebscher said: "I don't believe there were any expectations that the first quarter of 2003 would show strong growth. I think that the first quarter was very strongly affected by many of the uncertainties that we all know about." He also said there were other countries that could balance the 0.2 percent drop in first quarter Gross Domestic Product in Germany, as growth rates there were higher.
The ECB, which left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.50 percent last week, expects the economy in the 12 nation single currency bloc to grow by about one percent this year.//