The European economy will slow for a third year in 2009 as faster inflation weighs on consumer spending and discourages the European Central Bank from cutting interest rates, the European Commission said. Economic growth in the euro zone will slow to 1.5 % in 2009, the commission said in its spring economic forecast, 0.6% less than it projected in November and below the 1.7 percent expansion expected for 2008. Inflation will jump to 3.2 % this year, 0.6 % more than the commission's February forecast, before easing to 2.2 percent in 2009. ``I'm surprised they felt the need to bring it down so far,'' Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London said. ``It's very early days, there are an awful lot of uncertainties.'' Record oil prices, declines in the pound and the dollar, and a global credit shortage are buffeting the European economy as the U.S. teeters on the brink of a recession. The fastest inflation since 1992 is preventing the ECB from cutting interest rates to support economic growth. "These things will have an impact on the economy over a long period of time,'' said Stephane Deo, chief European economist at UBS AG in London. ``The growth rate will be not catastrophic, but weak.''