Eurozone GDP growth revised down

The Eurozone economy expanded only marginally in the second quarter, official data showed on Friday, as growth struggled to take hold.

According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, seasonally-adjusted GDP increased by just 0.2% in the second quarter in both the Eurozone and wider region.

That was down on Eurostat’s first estimate of 0.3% and on first quarter GDP, which was 0.3% in both zones.

Government expenditure nudged up 0.1 percentage points in the Eurozone, while exports less imports rose 0.5 percentage points. But household final consumption expenditure was flat.

Among member states, much of the revision was led by Ireland, with GDP falling to -1.0% from 0.6% in the previous quarter. French growth was also revised downwards, to 0.2%.

In Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, growth was negative, falling to -0.1% from 0.2%.

Compared with the same period a year previously, second-quarter GDP rose by 0.6% in the Eurozone and 0.8% in the EU.

Leo Barincou, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said: "Though the headline revision mostly stems from volatile Irish GDP figures, the detailed breakdown validates our concerns that the Eurozone domestic economic momentum is feeble at best, with most of second quarter growth stemming from external trade."

Eurostat also released labour data on Friday, which showed the number of employed people increased by 0.2% in the Eurozone and by 0.1% in the wider EU in the second quarter.