• Home
• /
• Europe
• /
• Business

EU's strong Q1 growth revised down slightly

London - Though growth lower than anticipated, eurozone performs way better than US

The eurozone economy didn't expand quite as quickly as originally thought in the first quarter of the year but it still showed good growth that outpaced the US during a period of global uncertainty.
Updated figures released on Friday by Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, showed that the 19-country economy expanded by a quarterly rate of 0.5 per cent in the January to March period. The revision from the initial 0.6 per cent estimate was largely anticipated in financial markets following weaker industrial production figures.
Though growth was lower than anticipated, the eurozone performed way better than the US, which according to Eurostat only expanded by a quarterly 0.1 per cent during the same period. Because of the lower quarterly rate, the annual rate of expansion of the eurozone slipped to 1.5 per cent from the previous 1.6 per cent.
Despite the revision, Eurostat confirmed that the eurozone economy has recovered all the ground it had lost in the recessions over the past few years and that it's now bigger than at the start of 2008, before the financial crisis.
There were several bright spots in the eurozone figures, including the news that the German economy, the region's biggest, grew by a strong 0.7 per cent. And France, the eurozone's No. 2 economy, expanded at a healthy tick of 0.5 per cent. Even Italy managed to grow 0.3 per cent.
The only real disappointment in the country-by-country figures was that Greece's economy contracted again during the quarter, a further sign that delays in the bailout programme may be hurting sentiment in the debt-strapped country. Greece's economy contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.4 per cent.
Eurostat did not provide a breakdown in terms of how different sectors performed but it seems that the eurozone, which is a net importer of crude, benefited from the fall in oil prices. The European Central Bank's monetary stimulus measures also appear to be helping to boost lending, which is vital to business activity and growth.
"The ECB's aggressive stimulus policy and governments' reduced emphasis on austerity are supporting domestic demand and offsetting the drag from weak emerging markets," said Bill Adams, senior international economist at PNC Financial Services Group.