The eurozone economy contracted 0.1% in the third quarter of the year compared to the previous three months, when it grew 0.2%, according to the latest estimates from the statistical office of the European Commission, Eurostat, which adds that GDP remained stable across the EU compared to previous reference figures, confirming a stagnation of the European economy.
Meanwhile, the employment rate grew by 0.3% in the eurozone and 0.2% throughout the EU in the third quarter of 2023, compared to the 0.1% registered in the two reference areas between April and June. In year-on-year terms, employment increased by 1.4% in the eurozone and 1.3% in the entire Twenty-seven.
Compared to the same reference period – between July and September – last year, both the eurozone and the EU as a whole recorded a modest growth rate of 0.1% annually. Figures that confirm the worse performance of the European economy compared to that of the United States, whose activity grew by 1.2% in the third quarter, compared to 0.5% from April to June. Also in year-on-year terms, the US economy confirms its greater robustness, with growth of 2.9% compared to the same period in 2022.
Among the main euro economies, Spain is at the forefront of quarterly growth, with 0.3% in the last three months, compared to 0.4% in the second quarter of the year. In year-on-year terms, Spanish growth stands at 1.8%, according to Eurostat estimates. The German economy, on the other hand, contracted by 0.1% and the French economy only grew by 0.1% (compared to 0.6% in the previous quarter), while the Italian economy stagnated.
Among the Twenty-Seven, the highest quarterly growth rates are recorded by Poland (1.4%), Cyprus (1.1%) and Hungary (0.9%), while Ireland is at the bottom, with the worst growth. European between July and September (-1.8%), and Finland (-0.9%).
Although the figures published this Tuesday slightly correct upwards the October estimates, when Eurostat set the growth for the second quarter of the year at 0.1% (which it now adjusts to 0.2%), the indicators confirm, once again , the economic slowdown in the single currency area, where nine of the 20 eurozone countries recorded negative growth between July and September (Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Portugal).
Eurozone GDP began the year with zero growth in the first quarter, which increased to 0.2% in the second and went negative (-0.1%) in the third, according to new Eurostat estimates , after those published on October 31. At the level of the entire community bloc, the reading does not give rise to great joy either: after a modest growth of 0.1% between January and March, the economy has remained stagnant for the following six months.
A new contraction of the eurozone economy in the last quarter of the year would mean entering a technical recession, although the countries of the common currency ruled out, in a recent Eurogroup meeting, that this will be “deep and prolonged.” at the same time they opted for a soft landing, recalls Efe. The new data comes in the midst of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) battle to lower inflation to its 2% target. Its head, the Frenchwoman Christine Lagarde, has just ruled out that the European entity is going to reduce interest rates currently set at 4.5% in the short term.
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