The European economy returned to growth in the spring, benefiting from progress in vaccinations against Covid-19 and a gradual lifting of health restrictions, according to figures published on Friday 30 July by Eurostat.
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro area rebounded by 2% in the second quarter from the previous one, after two consecutive quarterly declines, the European statistics office said, according to data (https://bit.ly/3xbZzX6 ).
For the EU as a whole, GDP growth reached 1.9%.
Among the large countries, France recorded the worst performance (+0.9%), behind Spain (+2.8%), Italy (+2.7%), and Germany (+1.5%).
In the first quarter, GDP in the euro area fell by 0.3%, following a fall of 0.6% in the last 3 months of 2020. Experts expected this strong rebound in the April-June period, thanks to the gradual lifting of health restrictions.
The upturn in growth has been reflected in the labour market.
The unemployment rate in the euro area fell sharply in June to 7.7% of the labour force, down from 8% in May. For the EU as a whole, unemployment fell by 0.2 percentage points over a month to 7.1%.
The only downside was that the annual inflation rate in the euro area rose in July to 2.2%, exceeding the ECB’s 2% target. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)