The EU economy struggled to escape a technical recession in the last three months of 2023, Reuters reports. The decline in the German GDP was offset by a strong GDP growth in Portugal and Spain, as well as the strengthening indicator in Italy.
According to Eurostat’s preliminary estimate, in the fourth quarter of last year the EU economy showed no change from the previous quarter and grew by 0.1% year-on-year. The agency’s sources expected the euro area GDP to decline by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter and remain unchanged year-on-year. This would have brought the European Union into a technical recession – a decline in GDP for two consecutive quarters.
It is noted that the greatest contribution to the preservation of the EU economy from recession was made by Spain, which showed growth of 0.6% between October and December, as well as Portugal with the 0.8% growth. The growth of Italy’s economy also accelerated to 0.2% for the last quarter of 2023. At the same time, the German economy showed a 0.3% decline in GDP in the final quarter of last year.
Sources: Reuters, Eurostat