The gross domestic product (GDP) of both the Eurozone and the European Union rose by 0.6 percent in the second quarter, compared with the prior quarter this year, according to updated figures released this Wednesday by Eurostat, the European Union statistics office.
Eurostat’s revised calculations show that for the euro area the quarterly growth is now measured at 0.6 percent, which is one-tenth lower than the earlier preliminary estimate of 0.7 percent announced at the end of July. Despite the small downward adjustment for the euro area, the overall bloc still records the same rate for the second quarter when considering the EU as a whole.
In context, the EU economy’s growth remains steady relative to the January-March period this year, and the euro area still shows a slight acceleration in the pace of expansion. The 0.6 percent quarterly increase in the euro area is paired with 0.5 percent growth for the broader bloc in the same period, indicating that the EU-wide trend mirrors a cautious, yet persistent upward trajectory after the first three months of 2022.
Looking year over year, the second quarter of 2021 witnessed 3.9 percent growth for the euro area and 4 percent for the Twenty-Seven. Those annual comparisons were both lower than the increases recorded in the first quarter of 2022, which stood at 5.4 percent for the euro area and 5.5 percent for the EU as a whole.
Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, showed no quarterly expansion in the second quarter of the year, remaining flat from April to June and contrasting with an 0.8 percent rise in the previous quarter. On a year-over-year basis, Germany posted roughly 1.5 percent growth, contributing to the overall performance of the bloc.
France achieved quarterly growth of 0.5 percent in the second quarter, rebounding after a 0.2 percent contraction in the first quarter. When compared with 2021, French GDP rose by about 4.2 percent, reflecting a resilient domestic economy and improving output across services and manufacturing sectors.
Spain led among the four major euro-area economies with a 1.1 percent increase in the second quarter, slightly ahead of Italy, and well above the gains seen in the first quarter. Spain’s economy also posted a solid annual expansion, approximately 6.3 percent for the year up to that point, underscoring the country’s ongoing recovery trajectory in the post-pandemic period.
Lower job creation
On the employment front, the second quarter of 2022 saw the Euro Area and the EU both add workers at a slower pace. The number of people employed rose by 0.3 percent compared with the first three months of the year, while the euro area and EU advanced by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent respectively during that period.
Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, employment was up by about 2.4 percent across the euro area, with similar rates seen in the EU. The year-over-year gains for the bloc stood around 2.3 percent, reflecting a broad-based but uneven recovery in labor markets after the previous year’s disruptions.