European Commission: EZ inflation will rise to 1.6% in 2019

In its latest set of economic forecasts, the European Commission said that the Euro-zone inflation will accelerate to 1.6% y-o-y in 2019 from 1.5% y-o-y seen in 2018 and made no changes to their GDP forecasts compared to an earlier forecast in February.

Key highlights:

   •  Euro-zone budget deficit will shrink to 0.6 % of GDP in 2019 from 0.7% of GDP seen in 2018.
   •  Euro-zone public debt will shrink to 84.1 % of GDP in 2019 from 86.5% of GDP seen in 2018.
   •  Euro-zone economy more exposed to external risks, which have strengthened and become more negative.