The lights of Frankfurt am Main’s banking district sparkle in the last rays of day.
Boris Rosler | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
The euro zone’s economy grew more than expected in the second quarter of 2024, according to preliminary figures released by the European Union’s statistics office on Tuesday.
The data showed the region’s gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent in the three months to the end of June from the previous quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a quarterly increase of 0.2 percent.
First-quarter GDP was confirmed at 0.3%, unchanged from the initial figure released earlier this year.
Revised data released earlier this year showed the eurozone would see GDP contract in both the third and fourth quarters of 2023, falling into a technical recession in the second half of the year.
Bert Collin, senior euro zone economist at ING, said in a note on Tuesday that the data suggested the region’s economy was recovering somewhat.
“After the stagnation throughout 2023, this is a relief and signals the economy has cautiously begun to recover,” he said, adding that the economy is in a better position than it was a year ago.
“Questions remain about where the economy is headed going forward, but recent data does not give us much confidence that the euro area economy will accelerate further,” Collin said.
Data released on the same day showed Germany, the euro zone’s largest economy, unexpectedly saw its second-quarter gross domestic product shrink by 0.1 percent, below expectations of analysts polled by Reuters, who had expected German GDP to grow by 0.1 percent.
Germany was one of just four countries whose GDP fell in the three months to the end of June, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office. The other three to record contractions were Latvia, Sweden and Hungary.
Ifo research chief Klaus Wohlrabe said in a note on Wednesday that the German economy is “still struggling to get out of the crisis” and that no significant improvement is expected in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Ireland recorded the biggest growth of 1.2 percent in the second quarter, while France, the euro zone’s second-largest economy, recorded GDP growth of 0.3 percent in the same period, Statistics France said on Tuesday.
Euro zone inflation is due to be released on Wednesday. The euro zone’s latest data to be released this week comes after the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold at its meeting earlier this month and said the option of cutting rates in September was “widely open.”
