The world economy seems to have stabilized in the first months of the year. The underlying growth dynamics, however, remain weak although we expect growth to accelerate somewhat going forward. This year, global output (at PPP exchange rates) will expand by 3.1 percent, which is close to last...

The economic situation in the euro area continues to be weak. In the course of 2003, real GDP has only stagnated. Several factors prevented the expected recovery to materialize. Last year’s collapse of stock prices dampened activity, so did the high oil price. In addition, the uncertainty in...