The Eurozone economies slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2022. The GDP of the euro countries barely grew by 0.1%, leaving the region on the verge of recession. The data, published this Wednesday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), point to a decline of 0.1% in the European Union and place Spain as one of the economies that grows above average, with a slight advance 0.2%.
The Eurozone thus suffers a slowdown, after growing by 0.4% in the third quarter of 2022. Greece -with an economic expansion of 1.4%-, Malta (1.2%) and Cyprus (1.1%) were the European countries that grew the most in the fourth quarter of 2022. On the other side of the coin were Poland, with a drop in GDP of 2.4%, Estonia (-1.6%) and Finland (-0. 6%).
The main reason for this setback is the general drop in household consumption, which fell by 0.9% in this period. Imports also fell -1.9% in the EU and the Eurozone-. Public spending, on the other hand, increased by 0.7% in these two regions.
The Eurostat publication also recorded an increase of 0.3% in employment in the Eurozone and the EU. However, if compared to the three previous months when it grew by 1.5%, employment grew at a slower rate. In any case, the balance of 2022 was positive, with an increase in employment of 2.2%, at a time when the bloc registers its highest employment rates in history.