skewed to the downside

[Yilaner]

Draghi stuck with the bank's forecast that the
euro zone economy would improve in the second
half of the year but said the risks to that were
skewed to the downside.
------------------------------------------------

I cannot understand what "the risks to that were
skewed to the downside" mean in this context. Please
explain it to me. Thank you.

[Cheryl]

It sounds like jargon, but I think he means that although he still
supports the forecast of improvements in the euro zone economy, he does
think that if he's wrong, the economy is more likely to be worse than he
expects than it is to be better than he expects. "skewed to the X..."
means "X is more likely to happen".

It sounds to me like Draghi is trying to have it both ways - say the
economy will improve, but also that it is likely to get worse.

--
Cheryl

[James Hogg]

It's awful. He's saying that the potential dangers that threaten the
positive forecast are of a negative kind. The risk of improvement is small.

--
James

[Whiskers]

More likely to be bad than good. "Downside" is (I think) AmE for "negative
or adverse aspect"; the opposite is "upside" (which also has other
meanings). "Skewed" means "crooked, bent, distorted, un-balanced, biased".

Quite what the adverse aspects of the forecast improvement are, remains
unclear.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

[John Holmes]

Not necessarily to get worse; it's just that the improvement may be smaller
than predicted.

--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au