Prospects of Recession in EU Depend on Bloc's Management of Energy Crisis - EU Commission

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Prospects of recession in the EU will depend to a large extent on how the bloc will be managing the current energy crisis, European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Thursday.

"If we manage to ensure sufficient energy supplies, we can avoid this scenario. A lot will depend on how we will be managing the energy crisis," Dombrovksis said in an interview with Euronews, answering the question on whether a recession is likely to take hold in the EU.

The European Commission would probably be revising upwards this year's growth forecast of 2.7%, though the economic environment has been rapidly deteriorating with confidence indicators going down, Dombrovksis stated.

Since 2021, energy prices in Europe have been surging as part of a global trend. After the beginning of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow by the West, fuel prices have accelerated the growth across the continent, exacerbating inflation.