Volodymyr Zelenskiy claims that Ukraine has captured many areas from the Russians near Kharkiv.

“Risk of Recession Rising” Energy prices are rising in the European Union (EU), especially against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni said in a speech in Brussels on Wednesday.

We may be headed for one of the toughest winters in generations. Several warning signs are flashing red: energy prices have broken new records, inflation continues to rise, and the economic environment is deteriorating. And the Russian war continues.

Speaking at a conference, Mr. Gentiloni underscored. The Bruegel think tank is in the midst of a standoff between Europeans and Russians over gas supplies.

The outlook depends mainly on the evolution of energy markets: in the event of a complete interruption of Russian gas supplies, they will deteriorate significantly compared to our reference scenario.

On July 14, the European Commission announced forecasts for the euro zone of 2.6% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 and 1.4% in 2023. These figures have already been reduced to 2.7% and 2.3% compared to earlier expectations. %

Mr. Gentiloni recalled. , the Economic Commissioner cited the PMI index, which indicated a contraction in activity in the nineteen countries that share the single currency in August, for the second month in a row.

“Financial conditions are tightening in Europe and globally. The euro has fallen below parity with the dollar for the first time in twenty years and developments in the US and China indicate that external demand will remain weak.He insisted.

“Still, All’s Not So Gloomy”Mr. Gentiloni pointed out that growth was higher than expected at the start of the year.

The European Statistics Office (Eurostat) on Wednesday revised growth figures for the first and second quarters in the euro zone to 0.7% and 0.8% respectively.