Eurozone recovery a ‘long haul’

OUTGOING European Central Bank president Wim Duisenberg says the eurozone economy will not get into its stride before late next year and warned that currency adjustments — code for a dollar crisis — would make matters worse.

In comments that will fuel expectations that ECB interest rates will remain at their roughly 50-year low of two percent well into next year, Mr Duisenberg warned that the recovery would be a long haul.

“Only in the second half of 2004, I regret to say, at the earliest can we expect the European economy to grow again at its rate of potential output. But it will be a continuous process from now on,” he said.