Eurozone GDP Expands 0.3% In Q1; Employment Growth Improves

(RTTNews) - Euro area economic growth accelerated less than estimated in the first quarter and employment logged a faster increase, flash estimate from Eurostat showed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product expanded 0.3 percent on a quarterly basis, which was revised down from the 0.4 percent growth estimated on April 30. This followed the fourth quarter's 0.2 percent expansion. On a yearly basis, economic growth remained unchanged at 1.2 percent in the first quarter and matched estimates.

Among the big-four economies, Spain posted the fastest expansion of 0.6 percent. Germany and Italy grew 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. The French economy expanded only 0.1 percent.

The EU27 economy grew 0.3 percent on a quarterly basis in the first three months of the year and advanced 1.4 percent from a year ago. Among member states, Ireland showed the highest sequential growth, at 3.2 percent.

The number of employed persons grew 0.3 percent from a quarter ago, following a 0.1 percent rise in the fourth quarter. Year-on-year, growth in employment was stable at 0.8 percent. Separate official data showed that the industrial production growth more than doubled in March as US manufacturers frontloaded their orders to avoid higher trade tariffs.

Industrial production increased 2.6 percent on a monthly basis, following a monthly growth of 1.1 percent in February. Output was expected to climb 1.7 percent. Year-on-year, industrial production logged an increase of 3.6 percent after rising 1.0 percent in February. Economists had forecast output to climb 2.5 percent.

"A lot of the strength is likely related to US frontloading of eurozone products, which means that we don't expect this to continue," ING economist Bert Colijn said. Underlying weakness still remains, the economist added.