Economic recovery plans adopted by EU member states should give an 0.85 percent boost to GDP growth for the block, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Thursday.
"Our first estimates at this moment are that the impact in 2009 will be around 0.85 percent GDP" growth, he said after an informal meeting of European finance ministers here.
He said that the impact of budget spending, bank rescue plans, and automatic economic stabilisers needed to be added to that, and that updated forecasts for EU economic growth would be ready in mid-January.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said automatic stabilisers would provide a cumulative boost of 2.35 percent GDP growth.
European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet, who also attended the meeting, urged that economic recovery plans adopted by EU member states be launched as soon as possible.
However, the ECB chief said he also told finance ministers the central bank still believes that eurozone countries need to respect the stability and growth pact, under which they should keep their public sector deficits below three percent of gross domestic product.
Calling the pact a "fundamental pillar" of the euro, Trichet said "...it is very important that we precisely have a respect of the pact, full utilisation of the pact, full utilisation of the room for manoeuvering in the pact."
Lagarde said that at the dinner meeting she asked her colleagues which were working on addition economic recovery measures.
"I learned tonight that six member states are going to do more than they've already announced," she said.
Italy on Thursday announced 16.6 billion euros of spending on infrastructure projects as part of its efforts to boost the economy.
Source: AFP Global Edition
