BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The eurozone economy slipped into recession in the first quarter, final figures released on Thursday by Eurostat show, which revised down gross domestic product for that period but also for the last three months of 2022.
The GDP of the 20 countries that have adopted the single currency fell by 0.1% over the January-March period and increased by 1.0% over one year, announced the European Union statistics agency.
A second estimate published in mid-May had given it up 0.1% from one quarter to another and 1.3% on an annual basis. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the economy to stagnate and grow 1.2% year on year.
This deterioration is mainly due to the contraction of the economy in Germany in the first quarter announced in the second estimate by Destatis, after a decline of 0.5% over the previous three months.
The figures for the fourth quarter of 2022 in the euro zone have also been revised down slightly and now show a contraction of 0.1% and no longer stagnation.
The euro zone and Germany are therefore in technical recession, a situation defined in effect by two consecutive quarters of decline in GDP.
In addition to Germany, an economic contraction was also recorded from one quarter to another in Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta and the Netherlands.
At the same time, Eurostat confirmed that employment in the euro zone rose by 0.6% in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter. Over one year, the increase was revised to 1.6% against 1.7% previously.
(Philip Blenkinsop, Laetitia Volga, editing by Kate Entringer)
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