The eurozone economy grew 0.2 percent in the first three months of the year, Eurostat, the European statistical office, reported Friday. Rising prices, declining consumer confidence related to the war in Ukraine and ongoing supply chain disruptions put a brake on regions. recovery from the pandemic.
“Obviously the picture for the first quarter is one of fairly weak growth,” said Ángel Talavera, head of European economics at Oxford Economics. “Consumer confidence has dropped quite a bit everywhere,” he noted, adding that household spending was weak as wages failed to keep pace with inflation, particularly in food and energy.
Figures for gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, varied widely among the 19 countries that use the euro. In France, where Covid restrictions remained in place for much of the first quarter, growth stalled.
The Spanish economy performed slightly better and grew by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous three months. However, the improvement was much smaller than the 2.2 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2021.
Germany, with the largest economy in Europe, saw its GDP increase by 0.2 percent in January, February and March, bringing annual growth to 4 percent.
“The economic fallout from the war in Ukraine has had an increasing impact on short-term economic development since the end of February,” Germany’s federal statistics office said in a statement.
In Italy, on the other hand, real GDP fell by 0.2 percent compared to the previous quarter.
Growth in the 27 countries that make up the European Union was slightly more rosy in January, February and March, rising 0.4 percent compared to the previous three months.
