EU expecting recession as inflation remains high

Energy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni
(Image credit: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

The European Union is now expecting a recession, European Commission officials said Friday. The commission's economic forecast for fall 2022 predicted growth of just 0.3 percent, which is a cut of more than one percent from estimates back in July, Politico reports.

Officials believe the economy is shrinking and will continue to do so through the first quarter of 2023, fueled in large part by an "energy-driven cost-of-living" crisis resulting from the nearby war, Bloomberg writes. "Amid elevated uncertainty, high energy price pressures, erosion of households' purchasing power, a weaker external environment, and tighter financing conditions are expected to tip the EU, the euro area, and most member states into recession," the commission wrote. Germany, Latvia, and Sweden are actually expected to have negative growth in 2023.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Devika Rao, The Week US

 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.