Brussels, 13/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Initial estimates published on Tuesday by Eurostat show that during the fourth quarter of 2001, GDP in the Euro-zone and that of the other Member States fell by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively, compared to third quarter annual results. During the course of the year 2001, GDP in the Euro-zone and Member States grew by 1.5% and 1.6% respectively, as opposed to 3.3% in both zones in 2000.
The fourth quarter was also characterised by a fall in investments (-0.8% in both zones) and foreign trade (-0.9% for exports from both zones and a fall in imports -1.1% in the Euro zone and -0.8% in E15).
Household final consumption expenditure grew slightly (+0.1% in the Euro-zone and +0.3% in E15). Eurostat explains that financial services and business activities experienced the highest rate of growth during the fourth quarter of 2001 (+0.6% in the Euro-zone and +0.7% in E15. Manufacturing, however, showed the lowest result among all branches of the economy, with a fall of 1.6% in both zones.