War will slow down EU's economic growth but will not stop it - Dombrovskis

  • 2022-04-27
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - The impact of the war in Ukraine will slow down the European Union's economic growth but will not stop it, European Commission Executive Vice President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (New Unity) told LETA. 

"The European Commission will release its next forecast in May. It is clear that the forecasts will be revised downwards as the last forecast before the war projected a 4 percent growth for the European Union, and it is clear that now there will be no such growth figures. The current assessment is that economic growth will be slowed down but not halted," Dombrovskis said, adding that it is necessary to watch how the situation develops in Ukraine. 

The EU commissioner also said that there are concerns about the rise of inflation. "Already in March inflation in the eurozone hit all-time high - 7.5 percent. In a number of countries, including Latvia, it was even higher," Dombrovskis noted. 

The EU commissioner indicated that the cause of the steep inflation was high energy prices, adding that the European Commission has proposed a set of measures member states might use to lessen the negative impact of the high energy prices and generally curb the price hikes. 

"We are currently assessing the overall functioning of the EU's energy market as the electricity price there typically depends on the gas price, regardless whether electricity is generated from gas, renewables or other sources. We are therefore also analyzing the gas price mechanism," Dombrovskis said.