Euro Area: GDP growth slows considerably in Q4
According to a third estimate, the Euro area economy expanded a seasonally-adjusted 0.3% from the previous quarter in Q4, which followed Q3’s 2.3% increase. This data confirmed that of the preliminary releases. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally-adjusted GDP expanded 4.6% in Q4, accelerating from Q3’s 4.0% rise.
The quarterly expansion came amid the tightening of Covid-19-related containment measures triggered by the Omicron variant, which hit household spending. Private consumption fell 0.6% over the previous quarter in Q4 (Q3: +4.5% s.a. qoq). However, fixed investment expanded 3.5% (Q3: -0.9% s.a. qoq), while public consumption growth came in at 0.5% (Q3: +0.3% s.a. qoq). Additionally, restocking added 0.3 percentage points to growth, as companies beefed up their inventories amid sustained supply uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the external sector subtracted 0.6 percentage points from the overall reading, as exports increased 2.9% (Q3: +1.7% s.a. qoq), and imports rose 4.6% (Q2: +1.4% s.a. qoq).
In terms of specific countries, the sharpest expansion among the major players was recorded in Spain (Q4: +2.0% s.a. qoq), followed by France (Q4: +0.7% s.a. qoq) and Italy (Q4: +0.6% s.a. qoq), while Germany’s economy shrank (Q4: -0.3% s.a. qoq).