Europe’s largest asset manager is betting that the euro will fall to parity with the US dollar this year as the mounting threat of recession prevents the European Central Bank from lifting interest rates above zero.

Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer at Amundi, said he expects the ECB to prioritise keeping a lid on government borrowing costs over fighting inflation. Such a decision would leave the eurozone central bank even further behind the US Federal Reserve in fighting inflation and knock the euro to $1 for the first time since 2002, Mortier said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“We are facing lower growth or probably a recession in the eurozone,” Mortier said. “We see the euro at parity [with the dollar] in the next six months.