After falling one tenth in the fourth quarter of 2022 and rebounding modestly in the first quarter of 2023, the euro area economy continues to stay afloat. Eurostat has confirmed that the gross domestic product of the euro countries as a whole grew by 0.1% in the second quarter of the year, two tenths less than the estimate of 0.3% published in August.
Although the GDP of the eurozone was identical to that recorded in the previous quarter, its evolution remained positive, unlike what happened in the last three months of last year, when it entered recession. The alarms went off, although they were deactivated in a short time, since in the first quarter the euro zone economy left negative territory.
Eurostat attributes the growth registered from April to June to the evolution of public spending, which increased by 0.2%, and capital formation. While the contribution of household consumption was insignificant and the trade balance -difference between exports and imports- had a negative impact.
Compared to the second quarter of 2022, the GDP of the euro zone grew by 0.5%, one tenth more compared to the evolution of the EU countries as a whole. However, the main European economies showed uneven behavior: Germany stagnated after contracting 0.1% in the first quarter; France accelerated its expansion to 0.5%, in contrast to the zero growth of the previous period; GDP in Italy fell 0.4% after growing 0.6% in the first quarter. And in the case of Spain, the growth of the economy between April and June was 0.4%, one tenth less compared to the previous quarter.
In the European Union as a whole, GDP stagnated between April and June after growing 0.2% in the first quarter. The performance of both the euro zone economy and the Union as a whole was worse compared to that of the United States, which registered an increase of 0.5% in both the first and second quarters of the year.
Regarding the labor market, the number of people employed in the eurozone grew by 0.2% during the second quarter of the year compared to the previous three months, which represents a moderation from the half a point that it advanced in the first part of the year. anus. The countries that saw the number of workers grow the most were Lithuania, Malta and Portugal, all three with an increase of 1.3%. On the opposite side, Estonia (-1.5%), Romania (-0.8%) and Croatia (-0.7%) experienced the largest declines.
