Eurozone’s GDP may shrink by 10%: European Commission

In a videoconference meeting, the EC estimated that the bloc’s economy could shrink by 10 percent this year, officials said. But ministers remained divided on how to boost the economy and failed to agree on a common text.

“After 16h of discussions we came close to a deal but we are not there yet. I suspended the #Eurogroup & continue tomorrow, Thu [Thursday]. My goal remains: A strong EU safety net against [the] fallout of #covid19 (to shield workers, firms &countries) & commit to a sizeable recovery plan,” Mário Centeno, head of Eurogroup, tweeted.

The Eurogroup is the recognized collective term for informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone – those member states of the European Union which have adopted the euro as their official currency. Poland is not a eurozone country. However, eurozone nations, including Germany, are some of Poland’s biggest trading partners.

The European Central Bank told eurozone finance ministers that the bloc may need fiscal measures worth up to €1.5 trillion this year to tackle the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, officials told Reuters news agency.

In the conference, which ended on April 8 without a deal after 16 hours of talks, Germany, the Netherlands and other northern European countries were ready to support EU measures worth 500 billion euros, officials who participated in the meeting said. In the meeting France, Italy and Spain said the European effort to tackle the crisis should be well above 1 trillion euros this year, officials said, in line with the European Central Bank estimate of financing needs of 1 to 1.5 trillion. While the participants narrowed the gap in views during their lengthy talks, a deal could not be reached mostly due to resistance from the Netherlands and Italy, officials said.

(PAP, Reuters)