Economic output crept 0.1% higher in the last three months of 2022, European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Tuesday, avoiding an outright downturn as warmer-than-usual winter weather shelved fears of energy rationing in Europe.The countries that share the euro currency -- 19 in 2022, now 20 after Croatia joined the eurozone in the new year -- appeared to have avoided the worst case scenario: forced industrial shutdowns from running out of natural gas after Russia halted most supplies.
"Growth was still very weak," said Rory Fennessy, European economist at Oxford Economics. He added that "the positive reading could mask underlying weakness in domestic demand" and that "private consumption is likely to have contracted." While underwhelming, Europe's growth figure at least raises the chance it will scrape by without a technical recession even if economic expansion is negative in the first three months of this year. Two straight quarters of falling output is one definition of recession, although the economists on the eurozone business cycle dating committee use a broader range of data such as unemployment and the depth of the downturn.
However, Germany's economy, Europe's largest, unexpectedly shrank by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to figures released Monday. Fears of lagging economic growth so far have not deterred the European Central Bank from its series of interest rate increases, which are sharply raising the cost of borrowing for businesses and consumers in an attempt to cool off inflation.
This is disinformation, those folks are suffering.
Yeh, too bad Canada couldn't have sold them the LNG, would have helped our economy too