Hope for economic growth in the eurozone, mere illusion: Analyst

An expert says the economic growth outlook in the eurozone is “quite bleak”, highlighting that all the European states have begun feeling the real sting of the deteriorating debt crisis in the single currency area, Press TV reports.

“So in reality the situation is getting [from] bad to worse and all the measures have been tried by the leaders of European nations and also the European [Central] Bank–printing money, reducing interest rate, it seems none of these measures are working,” said Shabbir Razvi, economic commentator, in a Friday interview with Press TV.

The economic expert further added that high unemployment rate, rising inflation and low wages are the key reasons why the measures taken by the European authorities have failed to produce positive results so far.

The comments came after the European Central Bank (ECB) lowered its projection for economic growth in the eurozone for 2012 and 2013, while at the same time, raising its forecast for inflation in the 17-nation bloc.

The ECB said on Thursday that it expected the bloc’s economy to tumble by 0.4 percent this year and then grow by 0.5 percent in the next, down from its previous forecast in June of minus 0.1 percent for 2012 and plus 1.0 percent for 2013.

Referring to the new ECB bond-buying program aimed at solving the single-currency bloc’s debt crisis, Razvi also stated that the “European [Central] Bank is continuously doing the same thing again and again. As I think some famous scientists long time ago said that the sign of madness is to do the same thing again and again and thinking of getting a different result.”

Various eurozone member states have been struggling with serious economic stagnation since the bloc’s financial crisis began roughly five years ago.

The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries, including Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.