ECB’s Forecast Downgrade Was Big, But Not Crisis-Era Big

(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank unveiled a huge downgrade to its 2019 GDP forecast on Thursday, lowering the prediction to 1.1 percent from 1.7 percent. That matched a cut four years ago, when the ECB was preparing to launch its bond-buying program, and was the biggest since 2013, during the euro-area sovereign debt turmoil. But it pales in comparison to the cuts of more than 2 percentage points during the financial crisis a decade ago.

--With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fergal O'Brien in Zurich at fobrien@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss

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