Ifo, Insee, Isae see euro zone GDP growth 0.7 pct in Q3, 0.6 in Q4, 0.3 in Q1

Euro zone GDP growth is expected to moderate to 0.7 pct in the third quarter and 0.6 pct in the fourth quarter, according to the main economic institutes from Germany, France and Italy. They said they then expect growth to slow to 0.3 pct in the first quarter of next year. Euro zone GDP grew 0.9 pct in the second quarter. The forecasts by Germany's Ifo institute, France's Insee and Italy's Isae institute show an upward revision from their previous projection for the third quarter. They had previously forecast a third quarter growth rate of 0.5 pct. The fourth quarter forecast is unchanged and the institutes did not previously make a forecast for the first quarter of 2007. The strong second quarter growth figure and the upward revision to the third quarter forecast led to an upward revision to the institutes' forecast for full year 2006 growth to 2.7 pct from 2.1 pct previously. The forecasts are slightly higher than those published by the European Commission earlier today. The commission said that is projecting growth of 0.4-0.8 pct in the third quarter, 0.2-0.7 pct in the fourth quarter and 0.0-0.5 pct in the first quarter of next year.