The euro zone recorded the slowest growth in two years

Has the trade agreement helped?

The euro zone gained 0.3% the weakest quarterly growth since the second quarter of 2016 reached. In addition, the value was slightly lower than the expectations of banking economists. Compared with the same period of the previous year, GDP increased by 2.1% in the euro area and by 2.2% in the EU-28. Eurostat will publish detailed data on the different components of GDP in September, which will complicate the analysis.

In the context of the first half of the year, the European Commission's recent forecast published in mid-July forecasts growth for the already reduced to 2.1% for the current year. She pointed to temporary factors such as cold weather and strikes in some EU countries, which had a dampening effect in the first quarter, but also tensions in world trade, increased political instability in some Member States and a rise in energy prices. 19659009] Holds last week's agreement between US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and monitors their actions, it could, however, significantly ease the business climate and boost operator confidence economic. This could in turn have a positive impact on growth.

Inflation exceeds 2%

The energy prices mentioned above also push up inflation: according to another estimate provided Tuesday by Eurostat, annual inflation based on prices slowed from 2.0% in June to 2.1% increased in July. This is the highest level since December 2012. Compared to July 2017, energy prices rose 9.4%, while the lowest growth was 0.5% for industrial goods without energy.

ECB) aims for medium-term average inflation rates "below, but close to, 2%". Despite the ultra-flexible monetary policy, this objective has always been missed in recent years. The current rise in inflation should also be interpreted with caution, because the effect of energy prices could quickly subside. After all, the underlying inflation has also taken something that blocks the volatility of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices and is therefore more meaningful for the development to medium-term: it rose from 0.9% in June to 1.1% in July.

Downer on the labor market

Meanwhile, there was a break in unemployment. In June, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.3% in the euro area and 6.9% in the EU-28, according to another Eurostat communication. Thus, it remained unchanged in both economic zones compared to the previous month. In addition, the number of unemployed increased slightly for the first time in a while. In the euro area, it has grown from 14,000 people to 13.6 million compared to May and from 4,000 to 17.1 million people across the EU.

Compared with the same month of the previous year, both economies recorded a drop in the unemployment rate and the lowest levels since December 2008, with figures in the euro area and their lowest level since May 2008 Compared to June 2017, all EU countries also recorded a decline in the unemployment rate, while in May, a slight increase was observed in some countries, notably Italy and Italy. in Austria.

Differences between Member States vary little. The lowest unemployment rate in the EU was again recorded by the Czech Republic (2.4%) during the month under review, followed by Germany (3.4%). The highest levels were recorded in Spain with 15.2% and in Greece with 20.2% (April, no recent data available). After all, Spain was one of the countries with the largest decline over a year considered: In June 2017, its rate was still 17.0%. During the month under review, heavyweights in France remained above the EU average with 9.2% and Italy with 10.9%.