The economy of the Eurozone shows slight growth in the second quarter – contrary to forecasts. Germany stands out and shrinks slightly.
Luxembourg (dpa) – In the Eurozone, the economy surprisingly remained on a growth path in the spring. In the 20 countries of the currency area, economic output increased by 0.1 percent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, as the statistical office Eurostat reported on Wednesday after a preliminary estimate. Economists had expected stagnation on average. At the beginning of the year, however, the Eurozone economy had grown significantly stronger, by 0.6 percent.
Compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the Eurozone economy grew by 1.4 percent in the months of April to June, thus stronger than analysts had expected. In the first quarter, the year-on-year growth was 1.5 percent. Eurostat reports the strongest economic growth in the quarterly comparison in Spain with an increase of 0.7 percent and in Portugal with 0.6 percent. In contrast, the German economy shrank slightly by 0.1 percent. (July 30)
