Davos | ECB Council member: The economy of the euro area developed surprisingly positively

European a member of the Council of the Central Bank (ECB) and the Governor of the Central Bank of Portugal Mario Centeno think that the economy of the euro area has developed better than many expected in the midst of the energy crisis.

Centeno said the news agency Bloomberg by in a discussion panel at the World Economic Forum event in Davos on Tuesday, that the eurozone economy has surprised the ECB and other followers of economic development quarter after quarter.

He said that the fourth quarter of last year will probably still be positive and predicts that economic growth in the first half of the current year may also surprise positively.

For now the strongest sign of a better-than-expected development of the eurozone economy came last week, when the gross domestic product figures of Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, unexpectedly defied economist forecasts in the last quarter of last year.

According to preliminary data announced on Friday, Germany’s economic growth slowed to just zero in October-December, when many economists had predicted a contraction of the economy in the rest of the year.

The surprisingly better GDP figures may mean that the German economy avoids recession and that the country’s economic downturn is milder and shorter than expected.

American Goldman Sachs predicted last week that the Eurozone will indeed avoid recession. The bank’s economists had previously predicted that the common currency area would sink into recession.

In its forecast published on Tuesday, the bank estimates that the euro area economy will grow by 0.6 percent this year. Earlier, the bank’s economists predicted that the economy would contract by 0.1 percent.

Economists changed their view of the euro area economy in a positive direction, as natural gas has fallen sharply and China has eased coronavirus restrictions faster than expected.