A freight train stops on the tracks at a transfer station in Frankfurt am Main in western Germany on January 23, 2024, with the city skyline visible in the background.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Kirill Kudryavtsev AFP | Getty Images
Preliminary data released by the European Union’s statistical agency on Tuesday showed that the euro zone economy stabilized in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The euro zone narrowly avoided the shallow recession predicted by a Reuters poll of economists, with economic growth of 0.1% Gross Domestic Product Declines In the third season.
The euro zone’s seasonally adjusted GDP was unchanged from the previous quarter and grew by 0.1% from the previous year. Preliminary estimates show that the euro zone’s full-year economic growth in 2023 is 0.5%.
its largest economy germany Shrink 0.3% in the final quarter of the year, according to data released on Tuesday. The country’s data was revised upward, narrowly avoiding a technical recession as the economy stalled in the third quarter.
France’s economy was stable in the fourth quarter, and Spain’s economy grew by 0.6%, exceeding expectations.
Meanwhile, the European Commission’s euro zone sentiment indicator showed a decline in consumer confidence, although the outlook for services and industrial companies was slightly brighter.
The euro zone economy is in a “protracted weak phase” driven by Germany, while southern European economies are leading the way in growth, ING senior economist Bert Colijn said in a report status.
“Germany is struggling with weak global demand for goods, while heavy industry is suffering from rising energy prices,” he said.
He added that the gap between the euro zone and the United States was widening, partly due to a sharp fall in inflation-adjusted wages, a shock to industrial goods in energy prices and lower levels of fiscal support.
The euro continued to edge lower against the dollar and slightly higher against the pound following the release of new data on Tuesday. The U.S. economy grew by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, exceeding year-end expectations. UK data will be released in mid-February.
The European Central Bank has raised interest rates to record highs over the past year and a half, tightening financial conditions across the region and helping to reduce inflation from a peak of 10.6% in October 2022 to 2.9% in December. The latest euro zone inflation data will be released on Thursday.
