Eurozone production jumps in Dec, confirming growth

World
Europe

Eurozone industrial production rose more than expected in December 2017, while GDP growth for the fourth quarter was in line with forecast, according to data released by EU statistics office Eurostate on Wednesday.

The 19-nation single currency area’s industrial production jumped 0.4 percent month-on-month, beating the 0.2 percent up forecast but still down from the 1.3 percent increase in November.

Source: Eurostat

“The acceleration of production growth is unlikely to be a one-off as the outlook for industry remains rosy,” said Bert Colijn, senior euro zone economist at ING bank, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“Given the current backlog of work in industry, it is no surprise that hiring and investment in capital goods are high on the list of businesses. This adds to the strong economic picture for the start of 2018,” he said.

The statistics office also confirmed that for the fourth quarter of 2017, Eurozone’s adjusted GDP rose by 0.6 percent on the previous quarter and 2.7 percent against the same period of 2016.

For the whole year of 2017, official data showed that euro zone GDP jumped 2.5 percent, best performance since a 3.0 percent rise in 2007.

Source: Eurostat

In the 28 states group of European Union, GDP also grew by 2.5 percent against 2016.

The Eurozone’s upturn is expected to continue in 2018 with annual GDP growth of 2.5 percent, said Stephen Brown, European economist at Capital Economics, according to Reuters.