The euro area’s pandemic recovery would almost grind to a halt, while prices would surge even more quickly if there are serious disruptions to natural-gas supplies from Russia, according to new projections from the European Commission. Under a severe scenario , the currency bloc’s economy would expand about 0.2% this year, with inflation topping 9%, as governments struggled to replace the imports, the European Union’s executive arm said. In 2023, growth would be one percentage point below the baseline. In its first forecasts since Russia invaded Ukraine and confirming an earlier Bloomberg report, the EU also cut its base-case outlook — predicting gross domestic product will advance 2.7% this year and 2.3% in 2023, down from February’s 4% and […]