ATHENS, Greece: As Europe braces for the economic fallout of new U.S. tariffs, a top eurozone official has warned the consequences could be more severe than expected.

Greek central bank governor Yannis Stournaras told the Financial Times in an interview published this week that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff measures could slow euro area economic growth by anywhere between 0.5 and 1 percentage point.

Stournaras' comments come as European Union countries consider approving a first set of targeted countermeasures on up to $28 billion of U.S. imports, from dental floss to diamonds, in the coming days.

The 27-nation bloc faced 25 percent import tariffs on steel, aluminium, and cars and "reciprocal" tariffs of 20 percent from April 9 for almost all other goods, although these have been paused for 90 days, while a 10 percent tariff is to apply.

In an interview with the newspaper, prior to the U.S. backflip on Wednesday, Stournaras warned that the looming global trade war risks sparking a large "negative demand shock" in the Eurozone, which could weigh heavily on Europe's economic growth.

"A notable adverse impact on growth could lead to activity being much weaker than expected, dragging inflation below our targets," he told the FT.

The European Central Bank has estimated that a blanket 25 percent U.S. tariff on European imports would lower eurozone growth by 0.3 percentage points in the first year. EU counter-tariffs on the U.S. would raise this to half a percentage point.

Stournaras said that tariffs were a deflationary measure and some of the U.S. steps were "worse than expected" creating an "unprecedented" degree of "global policy uncertainty", the FT reported.

The next ECB rate decision is due on April 17. Euro zone inflation eased to 2.2 percent in March from 2.3 percent in February, bolstering the case for another European Central Bank interest rate cut later this month.

U.S. goods imports into the EU totalled 334 billion euros ($365.6 billion) in 2024, against 532 billion euros of EU exports to the United States.

On April 2, Trump unveiled a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S. along with higher duties on dozens of other countries. The tariffs appeared to target about 60 countries.