He gross domestic product (GDP) of the euro area grew by 0.1% in the first quarter of the year, thus coming out of the stagnation of the last quarter of 2022, according to the community statistical office Eurostat, which confirms the preliminary data it published at the end of April.
The economy of European Union As a whole, for its part, it expanded by 0.2% from January to March, one tenth less than what was calculated in April but still three tenths more than in the last trimester 2022, a period in which the block’s activity contracted by 0.1%.
In interannual terms, the GDP of the eurozone it expanded by 1.3%, five tenths less than in the fourth quarter of 2022, while economic activity in the EU as a whole increased by 1.2%also five tenths less.
In parallel, Eurostat reports that the number of people employed increased by 0.6% both in the euro zone and in the whole of the Twenty-seven during the first quarter of the year, which represents a acceleration in job creation compared to the three preceding months, in which growth was 3%.
Compared to the first quarter of 2022, the increase of working Europeans was 1.7% in the common currency countries and 1.6% throughout the EU, also above the rates observed in the last three months of last year, which were 1.5% and 1.3%. , respectively.
Refering to evolution By country, Poland was the member state with the highest economic growth in the bloc between January and March (3.9%), followed by Portugal (1.6%), Finland (1.1%), Cyprus (0.8%), Slovenia (0.6%) and Spain , Italy and Latvia (all three 0.3%).
behind them stood Belgium and Bulgaria (0.4%), Denmark (0.3%), France, Slovakia and Sweden (0.2%) and Romania and the Czech Republic (0.1%), while Germany registered zero growth of 0%, thus avoiding a technical recession since it closed 2022 with a contraction of 0.5%.
By contrast, they were in negative territory in the first quarter Lithuania (-3%), Ireland (-2.7%), the Netherlands (-0.7%), Austria (0.3%) and Hungary (-0.2%).
These data confirm that both the eurozone and the EU escaped the recession technique that threatened to slow down economic activity at the end of last year due to the impact of inflation and also the continued increases in interest rates adopted by the ECB to control price increases.
The economic situation was addressed precisely this Monday by the Eurogroup just hours after the European Commission published new economic forecasts more optimistic than its previous calculations thanks to the sharp decline in energy pricesaccompanied by fewer problems in supply chains and the strength of the labor market.
Specifically, the economic services of the Community Executive calculate that the GDP will expand in 2023 by 1.1% in the euro area and 1.0% in the EU; while in 2024 it will grow by 1.6% and 1.7%, respectively, in both cases two and one tenth above the previous projection.
However, Brussels He expects inflation to decline more slowly than he estimated in February, falling to 5.8% this year and 2.8% next year in the euro area, noting that core inflation (which excludes the effect of energy and fresh food for being the most volatile) will remain even above these rates, at 6.1% and 3.2%.