No technical recession in euro zone as Eurostat revises up Q1 GDP

A view shows skyscraper office properties at La Defense business and financial district near Paris, France, June 26, 2023. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File photo

BRUSSELS  – Euro zone gross domestic product was flat in the first three months of this year against the previous quarter, the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat said on Thursday, revising a previous reading of a 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter contraction.

The revision means that the 20 countries sharing the euro currency did not, after all, enter a technical recession after a 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter contraction in the last three months of 2022, as indicated by Eurostat’s data in June.

Eurostat said on Thursday euro zone GDP fell 0.1 percent in the October-December 2022 period against the previous three months but was then flat in the January-March 2023 period.

In year-on-year terms euro zone GDP grew 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023, an upward revision from the 1 percent reported in June, after a 1.7-percent year-on-year rise in the previous three months, revised from 1.8 percent reported in June.

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