The euro zone economy grew by more than initially forecast in the second quarter of the year, revised data from the EU’s statistics office showed, with consumer rebounding sharply after two quarters of decline during pandemic lockdowns.
Eurostat said on Tuesday that gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the euro increased by 2.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter for a 14.3 per cent year-on-year rise. These compared with earlier estimates of respectively 2.0 per cent and 13.6 per cent.
The economies of every euro zone country expanded except Malta, although for Luxembourg there was no data.
However, GDP volumes in the single currency bloc were still 2.5 per cent below their pre-COVID peaks. The United States is already 0.8 per cent higher than its end 2019 level.
Eurostat said household consumption in the April-June period added 1.9 percentage points to the overall quarterly figure, with government spending and investment adding 0.3 and 0.2 points respectively.
A drawdown of inventories pulled 0.2 percentage points off the overall figure, while the net impact of trade was zero.
Eurostat said also employment rose 0.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter and by 1.8 per cent year-on-year. The former figure was above the previously reported 0.5 per cent increase, the latter was the same as that released in August.
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