ECB council member Nowotny sees very weak Eurozone growth through 2014

FXstreet.com (London) - Speaking at a central banking conference in Budapest, National Bank of Austria president Ewald Nowotny set out a subdued forecast for the Eurozone. The ECB governing council member predicted that the Eurozone will move out of recession and into very weak growth this year, with a continued gap between the core and the periphery.

While Nowotny highlighted the weakness in the European labour market, he also said that there was need for focus on the demand side.

"In the present situation of still low capacity utilisation in many fields of the economy, of low investment and especially of alarming rates of unemployment in many countries, it seems to be obvious that the demand-side of the economy is also of relevance - and that additional demand cannot be expected to come from ever-increasing current account surpluses of the EU," Nowotny said, adding that wile pubic budgets needed to be addressed, it should be done so without threatening recovery.