Eurozone surveys suggest slow growth

LONDON: Economic growth in the Eurozone will be steady but slow in the second quarter, surveys suggested on Wednesday, underlying European Commission concerns about the vulnerability of the currency bloc´s upturn.

Retail sales also fell across the Eurozone as a whole in March, and a price indicator offered no succour to the European Central Bank in its struggle to stave off deflation.

The final composite Purchasing Managers´ Index from Markit, which usually gives a good steer on overall economic growth, was at 53.0 last month, just below 53.1 in March.

Both figures point to an expansion, but a not particularly dynamic one.

Although the bloc´s economy grew a faster-than-expected 0.6 percent on the quarter in the January to March period, blowing past both the United States and Britain, that pace may not be sustained in the current quarter.  A Reuters poll last month predicted 0.4 percent growth in April-June as the region is still weighed down by high debt, weak bank profits, high unemployment and still considerable excess capacity in the economy.

The Commission, meanwhile, said in its economic forecasts on Tuesday that Eurozone growth would be slower than previously thought, with subdued inflation this year, and warned of high external and internal risks to the bloc´s economy.