Brussel: economie van de EU sterk ondanks recente financiële instabiliteit (en)
The European economy will continue to grow despite the recent turmoil in the global financial market because of a sound economic basis, says the European Commission ahead of a European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate decision next week.
"Despite the problems that have existed_the economic fundamentals in Europe are sound," commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday (29 August).
"There is no immediate concern in the sense that the growth and economic development in Europe might be seriously_affected by this situation," he added.
The world's financial markets were shaken earlier this month as fears over the quality of some of the mortgages held by US banks led to global concerns over the state of both world property markets, and of international banks operating in the US housing sector.
World stock markets nose-dived, and European and US central banks pumped billions of euros into banking systems in an attempt to restore confidence.
The ECB is set to decide on Thursday (6 September) whether to raise rates or leave them unchanged to help calm markets.
"Up to now we do not see any notable impact on the growth perspectives of the euro zone as a whole," said the prime minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently heads meetings of the 13 euro zone finance ministers.
"But we will have to wait a few more weeks to draw up final conclusions," he said, according to the International Herald Tribune.