Freight trains stand on the tracks of a transshipment station in Frankfurt am Main on January 23, 2024, and the city’s skyline can be seen in the west.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images
The euro zone economy stabilized in the fourth quarter of 2023, flash figures released by the European Union statistics agency showed on Tuesday.
After a 0.1% contraction in GDP in the third quarter, the bloc narrowly avoided the shallow recession forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
Eurozone seasonally adjusted GDP remained flat quarter-on-quarter and increased 0.1% year-on-year. According to a preliminary estimate, the euro area will record growth of 0.5% in 2023 as a whole.
The largest economy, Germany, fell 0.3% in the final quarter of the year, according to figures also released on Tuesday. The country narrowly avoided a technical recession as third-quarter numbers were revised upward when the economy stagnated.
The European Central Bank has raised interest rates to record highs over the past year and a half, creating tighter financing conditions across the region that has helped push inflation down from a peak of 10.6% in October 2022 to 2.9% in December to cool down. The latest flash figures on inflation in the euro zone are expected on Thursday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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2024-01-30 10:20:18
www.cnbc.com
