The euro area economy has now been growing for five years, and we expect the expansion to continue in the coming years

The slowdown has raised questions about the strength of the growth outlook and, in turn, about whether the ongoing convergence of inflation towards our objective will be sustained

Production slowed as carmakers tried to avoid building up inventory of untested models, which weighed heavily on economies with large automobile sectors, such as Germany

But this effect should be temporary. As the testing backlog clears, car production should return to normal by the end of the year and the effect on output should dissipate