MADRID, 7 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the euro zone moderated its rate of expansion between July and September to 0.3% from the 0.8% observed in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest estimate published by the Community Statistics Office , Eurostat, which has revised the activity data for the euro area in the third quarter of the year upward by one tenth.
Even so, it is the weakest growth rate in the euro zone economy since the first quarter of 2021, according to data from the statistical office.
In the European Union as a whole, GDP 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.
Thus, 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%.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, the last full quarter before the impact of the pandemic, the GDP of the euro area was 2.2% higher and that of the EU 2.8% higher.
According to Eurostat, in the third quarter of the year household final consumption expenditure made positive contributions to GDP growth in both the euro area and the EU (0.4% in both areas), while the contribution of spending end of government was negligible in both regions.
On the other hand, the contribution of gross fixed capital formation was 0.8 percentage points for the euro area and 0.7 in the EU, while the contributions from the foreign sector were negative (-1.1 pp for the eurozone and -0.9 pp for the EU).
Among the countries for which data were available, the highest quarterly growth was registered in Ireland (2.3%), ahead of Cyprus, Malta and Romania (all three 1.3%) and Luxembourg (1.1%), while that the largest drops in GDP corresponded to Estonia (-1.8%), Latvia (-1.7%) and Slovenia (-1.4%).
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. For its part, Germany registered growth of 0.4%, three tenths more than in the second quarter, while France grew 0.2%, compared to 0.5% in the second quarter, and Italy 0.5%, compared to 1.1% in the second quarter.
In the case of the United States, GDP grew by 0.7% in the third quarter compared to the three previous months, when it fell by 0.1%. In the United Kingdom, the economy contracted two tenths in the quarter, after growing by 0.2% between April and June.
