Eurozone GDP misses expectations
Eurozone GDP nudged up 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, missing expectations and marking a slight slowdown in growth from the previous three months.
The bloc had expected to report growth of 0.4 per cent, which would have kept it flat with the second quarter.
The figures show that the Eurozone is growing slower than the US, suggesting that its recovery remains vulnerable to outside factors, despite the stimulus measures launched by the European Central Bank earlier earlier this year.
The EU28 grew 0.4 per cent.
The slowdown – which comes from negative net trade – is expected to increase pressure on the ECB to adopt further stimulus in its next meeting in December.
There is a 96 per cent chance that the ECB's governing council will cut its deposit rate by 10 per cent, taking it to -0.3 per cent, Bloomberg reports.
Howard Archer, chief UK & European economist for IHS Global Insight, said: "No details have been released of the component breakdown of third-quarter Eurozone GDP, but based on the evidence from individual countries it does look odds-on that negative net trade was a significant factor limiting growth. This suggests that the help to Eurozone exports coming from the weak euro was countered by muted global growth.
"Domestic demand growth appears to have been generally decent across the Eurozone in the third quarter primarily due to healthy consumer spending as very low inflation/deflation across the Eurozone supported purchasing power."