The European Commission predicted an even gloomier outlook for the euro zone than its previously cut growth forecasts. In April, the European Commission revised downwards its forecasts for the euro zone's gross domestic product (GDP) growth, from 1.8 percent to 1 percent. "It is unlikely that our former estimate of 1 percent economic growth for the euro zone in 2003 can be reached, " Pedro Solbes, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner said. Stagnant growth in the first three months of the year continued into an "anaemic" second quarter, Solbes alarmed.