EUROPE ON ROAD TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY

While the European Union (EU)’s statistics office Eurostat confirmed a preliminary estimate that the 16-member eurozone contracted by just 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, it revised marginally upwards the gross domestic product figures for the broader 27-member EU.
Instead of contracting by 0.3 per cent, Eurostat said that the EU economy slumped by 0.2 per cent in the three months to the end of June as governments across the region rolled out fiscal stimulus packages to shield their economies from recession.
Helping to drag down the EU’s economic performance was a 0.7-per-cent slump in Britain and a 1.1-per-cent contraction in Spain.
The eurozone contracted by 2.5 per cent in the first quarter and by 2.4 in the 27 member EU, Eurostat said.
“The recent data inflow indicates that the eurozone as a whole should leave technical recession in the third quarter.”
Wednesday’s data also confirmed that the eurozone’s two biggest economies - Germany and France - unexpectedly climbed out of recession in the second quarter to each record a growth rate of 0.3 per cent.
Underpinning the improvement in the eurozone economy during the second quarter was a 0.7-per-cent pickup in private consumption (after falling 0.5 per cent in the first quarter) and 0.7-per-cent rise in net trade.
Eurozone unemployment hit a 10-year high in July of 9.5 per cent, Eurostat said Tuesday.
Releasing the data, Eurostat said while the eurozone economy shrunk by 4.7 per cent year on year in the second quarter and by 4.8 per cent in the 27-member EU.