Paris - In a sign that the global economic crisis is more protracted than was foreseen, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday said that the European and Japanese economies would grow more slowly than had been forecast.

Eurozone countries will see their economies grow by only 1.2 per cent in 2008, instead of the 1.7 per cent the OECD had predicted previously. Japan's GDP will expand by only 1.2 per cent this year, also down from a previous forecast of 1.7 per cent.

However, the US economy appears to be more robust that believed, with GDP seen to grow by 1.8 per cent in 2008, up from 1.2 per cent projected earlier.

"Financial market turmoil, housing market downturns and high commodity prices continue to bear down on global growth," the OECD said in an interim assessment issued in Paris on Tuesday.

While the organization's short-term forecasting models "point to weak (economic) activity through the end of the year," it said that many uncertainties about the what is driving the economic situation "make for an unclear picture." (dpa)