The eurozone economy will shrink by 1.9 percent this year due to the financial crisis, the European Commission said in its latest economic forecasts on Monday.

"This is the result of the impact on the real economy of the intensified financial crisis, the ensuing global downturn manifested in the severe contraction of world trade and manufacturing output and, in some countries, housing-market corrections," the European Union (EU)'s executive arm said.

It also forecast the combined economy of the 16 EU nations that use the euro will recover by about 0.5 percent in 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)