FRANKFURT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank expects economic growth to rebound more slowly next year as the pandemic continues to weigh on output but the recovery could be quicker in 2022 than earlier thought, its updated economic projections showed on Thursday. In what it describes as the baseline scenario, the ECB expects GDP to expand by 3.9% percent next year, slower than its September forecast of 5%. But in 2022, growth is seen at 4.2%, above a previous projection of 3.2%, ECB President Christine Lagarde said. The ECB also sees inflation next year at 1%, unchanged from its last projection, while in 2022, inflation is seen at 1.1% against 1.3% seen three months ago. In the bank"s initial projection for 2023, inflation is expected to rise to 1.4%, still well short of the ECB"s target of almost 2%. Lagarde said risks to the euro zone economy remained tilted to the downside but had become less pronounced. The following are the ECB"s quarterly growth and inflation projections through 2023. Figures in brackets are the ECB"s previous forecasts from September. For 2023, the ECB is providing forecasts for the first time. 2020 2021 2022 2023 GDP growth -7.3% (-8.0%) 3.9% (5.0%) 4.2% (3.2%) 2.1% Inflation 0.2% (0.3%) 1.0% (1.0%) 1.1% (1.3%) 1.4% (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Catherine Evans)