Despite the signs of slowdown that have been detected in the euro zone economy in recent months, the group of Member States of the European Union (EU) that share the euro recorded growth one tenth higher in the third quarter of the year to the data forecast by Eurostat in mid-November, 0.2%. The community statistics office has revised its initial estimate upwards, to 0.3%.
A growth higher than expected, but which is five tenths lower than that registered in the second quarter of the year, when the GDP of the euro area was 0.8%. It is, therefore, the weakest growth in this group of countries since the first quarter of 2021, the year in which the euro zone grew by 5.3%, leaving behind the pothole caused by the covid crisis.
In the EU as a whole, economic growth in the third quarter slowed to 0.4 from 0.7% in the previous three months, two tenths better than previously estimated, but its worst reading since the first quarter of 2021 Compared to the third quarter of last year, the GDP of the euro area grew by 2.3% and that of the EU by 2.5%.
However, when the latest data is compared with that of the fourth quarter of 2019, just before the impact of the pandemic, the conclusion is that the GDP of that period was 2.2% higher than the current one. And in the case of the EU, 2.8%. Thus, it is verified that the economy of the block has not yet recovered from the bad records of 2020.
Likewise, the data corroborate that consumption continued pulling the bandwagon since household spending had a positive contribution to GDP of 0.4% in both areas. Investment contributed 0.8% to growth in the euro area -one tenth less in the EU-. While the contribution of the foreign sector fell by 1.1% in the euro area (two tenths less in the EU).
The highest growth in the third quarter occurred in Ireland (2.3%), as well as Cyprus, Malta and Romania, whose GDP was 1.3%, and Luxembourg (1.1%). On the other side of the scale are Estonia (-1.8%), Latvia (-1.7%) and Slovenia (-1.4%), which registered the largest falls.
In the case of Spain, GDP slowed its rate of expansion in the third quarter to 0.2% from 1.5% in the three previous months. A meager growth that is one tenth below the figure for the euro zone of 0.3%. The figures are also not very encouraging for Europe's economic locomotive, Germany, which experienced modest growth of 0.4%, three tenths more than in the second quarter. While France grew by 0.2% and Italy by 0.5%.
