In their preliminary flash estimate of European GDP for Q3-2024, Eurostat points to an acceleration in growth for the Euro-zone with a quarter-on-quarter increase of +0.4% compared to growth of +0.2% in the 2nd period of the year. However, for the EU as a whole, the growth rate is stable at +0.3% in both periods.
The initial estimate from Eurostat shows GDP growth of +0.3% for the EU and +0.4% for the sub-set of the Euro-zone countries. Compared to a year earlier, the EU economy and that of the Euro-zone have both seen growth of +0.9%; this is an acceleration in the annualized rate from the previous quarter when it was +0.8% for the EU and +0.6% for the Euro-zone.
At this stage we only have data for 13 of the EU Member States; of these, only 3 countries have seen their economy contract in Q3-24 (compared to Q2); these are Hungary (-0.7%), Lativa (-0.4%) and Sweden (-0.1%) while Italy was unchanged. All three of these countries also saw their economy contract in the 2nd quarter so meet the usual definition of being in a recession.
Looking at the comparison with a year ago (at the end of Q3-2023), 6 of the 13 EU Member States have seen their economy contract – Austria (-0.1%), Germany (-0.2%), Ireland (-0.2%), Hungary (-0.7%), Latvia (-1.4%) and Sweden (-0.1%). However, please bear in mind that GDP data for Ireland is unreliable because of the significant contribution of headquarters operations for a number of large multi-national companies to economic activity which is measured with GDP.
You can get the Eurostat figures from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators (30 October) or request it from MTA.