FRANKFURT, Germany — The International Monetary Fund said Monday that the global credit crisis and persistent gloom over the U.S. economy have dampened the outlook for European economic growth.
“Europe has so far been relatively resilient to the U.S. slowdown and the global financial turbulence, but the historical record suggests these will increasingly take their toll,” said Michael Deppler, director of the IMF’s European Department.
The IMF forecast that the fallout from the credit crisis would combine with the near-record strength of the euro and soaring food and energy prices to knock inflation-adjusted GDP growth across Europe to 2.6 percent this year from 3.9 percent last year “with growth rates in the advanced economies projected to fall well below potential for some time.”
In the euro zone, GDP is expected to be at 1.4 percent this year and 1.2 percent in 2009.
