Eurozone GDP exceeds expectations

Brussels. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the euro zone grew 0.4 percent in the third quarter, the European statistics agency Eurostat reported this Wednesday. The advance was driven in part by the recovery in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, which escaped a trajectory toward recession.

The data exceeds the 0.2 percent growth of the second quarter. The Eurostat data exceeded market expectations, which estimated a rebound of 0.2 percent.

For the European Union (EU) as a whole, that is, including countries that do not use the euro as their currency, Eurostat recorded a growth of 0.3 percent in the same period.

In the first quarter, the eurozone’s GDP had already grown 0.3 percent, leaving behind the stagnation of the second half of 2023, when there was no growth.

According to Eurostat figures, Germany showed a contraction trend this year (0.2 percent in the first quarter and a drop of 0.3 percent in the second), but in the third it recovered and achieved an expansion of 0.2 percent.

In the third quarter, France recorded growth of 0.4 percent, driven by the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the official statistics institute Insee announced in a first estimate; Meanwhile, Italy’s GDP stagnated.

Meanwhile, Spain continues to grow. After an expansion of 0.9 percent in the first quarter and 0.8 percent in the second, the trend continued in the third quarter, with an advance of 0.8 percent, above the block average.

The highest growth in the period analyzed was recorded in Ireland, with a recovery of 2 percent, after the 1 percent drop in the previous quarter.