An employee places an article in the window in a delicatessen of Piazza Campo Di Fiori in Rome, Italy, Tuesday, December 6, 2016.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty images
The economy of the euro zone experienced zero growth in the fourth quarter, the flash figures of the European Union Statistics Agency on Thursday.
Economists interviewed by Reuters expected growth of 0.1% during the period, following an expansion of 0.4% larger than expected in the third quarter.
Block data intervenes after printing worse than expected growth of the two largest economies in the euro zone, Germany and France. Earlier Thursday, official data showed that the gross domestic product in Germany dropped 0.2% in the fourth quarter, while the French economy also slightly decreased during the same period. The Italian economy was also tackled by a quarter on a scale, data showed earlier on Thursday.
On the other hand, the Spanish gross domestic product increased 0.8% in the fourth quarter, the country’s statistics office said on Wednesday. The economic growth of neighboring Portugal has also accelerated in the same quarter, to 1.5% with its national statistics agency, attributing expansion to “acceleration of private consumption”.
THE euro fell 0.15% compared to the dollar according to the data, which could stimulate the European central bank when it comes to determining its next interest rate later Thursday.
The central bank sought to stimulate economic activity and investment in the euro zone by implementing four interest reductions last year. The ECB should make another 25 basis point garnish when it meets later Thursday to bring the key rate, the deposit installation, at 2.75%.
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Economists expect the central bank to make new interest rate drops this year, as fears of the faulty growth of Trump concerns about obstinate inflation in the block.
“The stagnation of the GDP in the euro zone in the fourth quarter supports our opinion that the economic prospects of the region are worse than most think. We expect it to encourage the ECB to reduce interest rates More this year than what is reduced on the market, “said Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy-in-chief economist in the Euro area of capital Economics, comments said after the data statement.
In December, the central bank plans that the euro zone economy would increase by 1.1% in 2025, saying that it expects the growth of GDP in the euro zone “to be somewhat short term, in the midst of significant uncertainty “.
“Indicators based on the survey relevant to activity, such as the purchasing managers (PMI) and trusted indicators for European Commission and consumers, remain moderate,” said the central central bank in December.
The ECB expected the economy to increase by 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024 as occasional factors supporting growth last summer, such as the Paris Olympic Games, disappeared and in the middle of the “Mobile confidence continues, high uncertainty and geopolitical tensions”. The central bank provides that GDP growth is 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025.
The European flag flows alongside the headquarters of the European Central Bank (BCE) in Francfurt Am Main, in Western Germany, on April 11, 2024, before a press conference of the ECB on the monetary policy of the euro zone.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty images
The central bank decision -makers will be aware of the inflationary pressures in the region, the consumer price index of the euro zone which was running up in recent months, reaching 2.4% in December.
Central inflation, which removes volatile foods from food and energy, was unchanged at 2.7% for the fourth consecutive consecutive month. The Central Bank provides that the inflation rate in the block arrives at 2.1% this year.
