Eurozone economic growth eased marginally in the third quarter, intensifying expectations for additional monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank at its December meeting.
Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent from the previous three months, which was weaker than the 0.4 percent expansion seen in the second quarter, flash estimates from Eurostat showed Friday.
Economists had forecast growth to remain unchanged at 0.4 percent.
Meanwhile, annual growth improved marginally to 1.6 percent from 1.5 percent in the second quarter. But it was slightly weaker than the expected 1.7 percent expansion.
Eurostat is slated to publish the breakdown of third quarter GDP on December 8.
IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said negative net trade appears to have significantly held back Eurozone growth.
The fact that domestic demand looks to have been decent across the Eurozone in the third quarter maintains the assessment that the region should be able to achieve steady growth over the coming months, barring a major downturn in global growth, Archer noted.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, expects the 19-nation currency bloc to expand 1.6 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year.
Today’s GDP figures add further support to the already very strong case for additional policy stimulus from the ECB at its next meeting in December, Jonathan Loynes, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
Among the big-four countries, Germany, Italy and Spain experienced slowdown in momentum, while the French economy returned to growth on the back of domestic demand.
Germany, which is the largest Eurozone economy, rose only 0.3 percent, slower than the 0.4 percent growth logged in previous period, due to weak investment and foreign trade.
Italy’s growth eased to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent seen a quarter ago. Spain’s GDP advanced 0.8 percent, but below second quarter’s 1 percent growth.
On the other hand, France GDP climbed 0.3 percent after stagnating in the second quarter.
Among other Eurozone nations, Portugal’s economy stagnated after expanding 0.5 percent each in the previous two quarters.
At the same time, Austria’s growth eased to 0.1 percent from 0.3 percent. The neighboring Slovakia’s pace of expansion held steady at 0.9 percent.
Elsewhere, Belgium grew 0.2 percent, weaker than the 0.5 percent expansion seen in preceding three months.
Growth in the Netherlands stabilized at 0.1 percent. Likewise, Cyprus grew 0.5 percent, the same as in the prior quarter.
Meanwhile, Finland contracted 0.6 percent after recovering from recession in the second quarter. Similarly, Greece shrank 0.5 percent after expanding for two straight quarters.
The youngest Eurozone country, Lithuania, expanded at a faster pace in the third quarter. Growth improved to 0.5 percent from 0.4 percent.
Latvia, which joined Eurozone in 2014, grew 0.4 percent, much slower than the 1.2 percent rise logged in preceding quarter.
The EU28 GDP advanced 0.4 percent from the prior quarter and by 1.9 percent from the same period of last year.
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