In the first quarter of 2022, GDP in the Eurozone increased by 0.3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. And in the European Union, GDP increased by 0.4 percent. The European Union’s statistics office, Eurostat, reported this on Tuesday in Luxembourg. The number of employees also increased slightly.
source: BELGA
In a preliminary estimate, economists expected eurozone GDP to rise by just 0.2%. Compared to the first quarter of 2021, the seasonally adjusted GDP in the eurozone increased by 5.1 percent. Economists there expected 5% growth. In the European Union, GDP growth was 5.2 percent year on year.
In comparison, the US GDP in the first quarter of 2022 decreased by 0.4 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. On an annual basis, GDP in the first quarter of 2022 increased by 3.6 percent.
Compared to the previous quarter, the number of workers in the eurozone increased by 0.5 percent, in the European Union by 0.4 percent. On an annual basis, the number of employed people in the Eurozone increased by 2.6 percent. In the European Union, the increase was 2.5 percent.
The eurozone comprises nineteen countries with Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Finland. In the European Union, those member states are joined by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.