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Added on the 11/11/2022 11:29:20 - Copyright : Euronews EN
The EU hikes its eurozone growth forecast for 2023 from 0.3 to 0.9 percent on the back of lower gas prices, with EU Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, announcing that the "EU economy is thus set to narrowly escape the technical recession that was projected back in autumn," at a conference in Brussels, Belgium. SOUNDBITE
The nationalist pro-Irish Irish party Sinn Fein says the installing of a nationalist first minister in North Ireland, after the main pro-UK party agreed to endorse a deal with London, will be "a moment of very great significance". Speaking in Belfast, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald says it will mark "the extent of change that has occurred here in the north and indeed right across Ireland". The The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP agreement with London -- approved on January 30 in an internal vote at a closed-door meeting in Lisburn, near Belfast -- formed a basis to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly, that has been paralysed for nearly two years. SOUNDBITE
Eurozone finance ministers come together in Brussels for their monthly meeting, with attention particularly focused on Croatia -- which joined the Eurozone at the beginning of 2023. IMAGES
The EU warns the eurozone is expected to fall into recession this winter as soaring energy prices batter the wallets of consumers around the continent. "The outlook for next year has weakened significantly and we now forecast the EU economy to grow by only 0.3 percent in 2023 before a progressive recovery to 1.6 percent in 2024" the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni says. SOUNDBITE
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warns that the eurozone could fall into recession next year in the case of a total shutdown of Russian gas supplies. The "downside scenario" for 2023 foresees negative growth in the case of a "total shutdown of all Russian gas supply" and energy rationing in the eurozone, she said, after the ECB unleashed a record rate hike. SOUNDBITE
The Fed predicts a 5.2 percent rate of inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, before falling rapidly to 2.6 percent next year and 2.2 percent in 2024, Chair Jerome Powell says during a press conference. SOUNDBITE