Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said he expected the European economy to rebound this year after the slow-down worsened by the Iraq war, in an interview Sunday with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
"The mood is clearly better than last year," Gates said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, a meeting of the international political and business elite in Davos, Switzerland.
"You will also see it in the numbers," he said when asked about the European economic growth rate.
The software mogul said that the insecurity on international markets prompted by the US-led war in Iraq had diminished and that signs of an economic recovery in Europe "can clearly be felt".
The European Central Bank has forecast 1.6 percent economic growth in the 12-country zone using the euro in 2004.
But analysts have raised concerns that the current strength of the single European currency against the dollar could put a damper on an upturn.
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