In the second release of data for GDP in the 3rd quarter of 2024, Eurostat left its original estimate of growth of +0.3% for the EU and +0.4% in the Euro-zone compared to Q2-24 unchanged. Compared to a year ago (the rolling annual rate), the EU economy has expanded by +1.0% (up from +0.9% in the first estimate) with growth unchanged at +0.9% for the Euro-zone.
In the quarter-on-quarter trends, this represents an improvement for the Euro-zone, which had only grown by +0.2% in the 2nd quarter, but the EU rate has not changed. However, for the annualized rate, there has been an acceleration compared to cumulative growth rates of +0.8% for the EU and +0.6% in the Euro-zone.
This release also brings data for more of the individual Member States, with Q3 figures now published for 22 of the 27 countries. This shows quarter-on-quarter growth in 16 of them, 2 (Italy and Romania) were unchanged compared to Q2-2024 and the other 4 (Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Sweden) saw a contraction in GDP. Three of these – Poland is the exception – are in recession having also recorded a negative figure in the 2nd quarter of the year.
There are 8 countries that have a smaller economy than a year ago; these are Austria (-0.1%) Estonia (-0.7%), Germany (-0.2%), Hungary (-0.7%), Ireland (-0.2% but a notoriously volatile economy when measured using GDP due to the presence of multi-national company’s headquarters – many of them from the US), Latvia (-1.4%), Romania (-0.2%) and Sweden (-0.1%).
You can get the Eurostat figures from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators (14 November) or request it from MTA.