The European Commission expects a «sharper-than-expected» slowdown in the EU economy for 2008. The EU executive's latest interim forecast now says growth this year in the 15-nation euro-zone will be only 1.3 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from a previous forecast issued in April, the Associated Press reported. Growth in the entire 27-nation bloc has also been downgraded to 1.4 percent from 2 percent. The latest forecast, issued Wednesday, also predicts inflation to average around 3.6 percent in the euro-zone for the remainder of 2008.
