Eurozone GDP quarterly growth rate sped up to 0.4% in Q3, an upside surprise compared to an expectation of 0.2% increase, countering widespread worries that the currency bloc is sliding into economic stagnation.
The resilient growth was support by strong growth in both Ireland (2%) and Spain (0.8%), solid reading in France (0.4%) as well as a rebound in Germany (0.2%).
Bert Colijn, ING’s Chief Economist of The Netherlands, warned against reading too much into the acceleration in growth as Irish GDP are “notoriously volatile” given that it’s prone to the influence of multinational accounting activity. The French GDP is also likely boost by the Olympics in the summer.
