The euro zone economy contracted 0.1% in the third quarter of the year compared with the previous three months, when it grew 0.2%. This is according to the latest estimates from the European Commission’s statistical office, Eurostat, which also adds that GDP across the EU remained relatively stable compared to previous reference figures, confirming stagnation in the European economy.
Meanwhile, the employment rate rose by 0.3% in the euro zone and by 0.2% across the EU in the third quarter of 2023, compared to 0.1% in the two reference areas between April and June. Year-on-year employment rose by 1.4% in the Eurozone and by 1.3% over the full 27 years.
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% per year. Figures that confirm the worse performance of the European economy compared to that of the United States, whose economic activity increased by 1.2% in the third quarter, compared to 0.5% in April-June. Also year-on-year, the US economy confirms its greater robustness, with growth of 2.9% compared to the same period in 2022.
Among major euro economies, Spain leads the way with quarterly growth of 0.3% in the last three months, compared with 0.4% in the second quarter of the year. According to Eurostat estimates, Spanish growth is 1.8% year-on-year. The German economy, on the other hand, contracted by 0.1% and the French economy grew by just 0.1% (versus 0.6% in the previous quarter), while the Italian economy stagnated.
Of the twenty-seven, Poland (1.4%), Cyprus (1.1%) and Hungary (0.9%) recorded the highest quarterly growth rates, while Ireland brought up the rear with the worst growth. European between July and September (-1.8%) and Finland (-0.9%).
Although the figures published this Tuesday revise slightly upwards the estimates of October, when Eurostat set growth for the second quarter of the year at 0.1% (now revised to 0.2%), the indicators once again confirm the economic Slowdown in the annual 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 started the year with zero growth in the first quarter, rose to 0.2% in the second and fell into negative territory (-0.1%) in the third. This emerges from new estimates by Eurostat, made after the estimates published on October 31st. Even at the level of the entire municipal block, it is not much fun to read: after a modest growth of 0.1% between January and March, the economy stagnated in the following six months.
A new contraction in the euro zone economy in the last quarter of the year would mean entering a technical recession, although the common currency countries ruled out at a recent meeting of the Eurogroup that this would be “deep and long-lasting” at the same time a soft landing, Efe remembers. The new data comes amid the European Central Bank’s (ECB) struggle to bring inflation down to its 2% target. Its boss, the French Christine Lagarde, has just ruled out that the European company will reduce interest rates from the current 4.5% in the short term.
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