VIENNA - Austrian National Bank Ewald Nowotny claimed on Friday that the economy in the eurozone had slipped into recession, saying that 2013 will be difficult.

Nowotny said that the economy in eurozone might bottom out by the end of the last this year, but he didn't rule out a further fall.

Nowotny revised sharply downward the overall 2012 and 2013 economic growth forecasts from those by the European Central Bank (ECB) released Thursday.

He said that many countries in the eurozone will face cutbacks in consumption and decrease in infrastructure investments, which will drag the economy further downward.

He also said OECD forecasts for individual European countries were too positive, and that he expected some of them to experience economic contractions.