Eurozone growth falls, Italy woes weigh

Source: Xinhua | 2018-10-31

Growth in the eurozone slowed significantly in the third quarter, official data showed yesterday, as Italy’s economic troubles weighed and car production in Germany was disrupted.

Gross domestic product in the 19-country single currency area rose just 0.2 percent from July to September, the Eurostat agency said, compared with 0.4 percent in the preceding quarter and analyst forecasts, also for 0.4 percent.

The disappointing data come with Brussels locked in a standoff with Rome over its populist government’s plans for larger deficits despite a high public debt load.

On a year-on-year basis, economic growth in the eurozone was 1.7 percent, well below the 2.2 percent rate seen in the previous quarter.

Bert Colijn, Senior Economist at ING bank said the 0.4 percent growth seen in the second quarter “may have felt like a disappointment at the time, but could well have been a last hurrah of the growth cycle.”

Hold-ups in German car production over new emissions rules likely hit growth in the zone’s economic powerhouse.