EU recovery on track as growth up, unemployment down

World
Europe

Despite the turbulence of Brexit and lingering shadow of the financial crisis in 2008, European Union saw the light of economic recovery as a slight economy growth and small unemployment rate drop in the second quarter of 2017, according to official data released Tuesday.

GDP in both the 19-country single currency area and 28-country EU rose by 0.6 percent from April to June, compared with 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, data from EU statistical office Eurostat showed Tuesday.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, GDP rose by 2.1 percent in the Eurozone and by 2.2 percent in the EU in the second quarter of this year, after 1.9 percent growth and 2.1 percent growth achieved in the first quarter of 2017.

Moreover, labor market also reported good news.

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone was 9.1 percent in June 2017, lowest rate recorded since February 2009. The data in EU in the same period was 7.7 percent, which is the bottom rate since December 2008, according to data Eurostat released Monday.

European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany /AFP Photo

The Eurozone economy has rounded out the first half of the year in a very healthy state and seems to be set up nicely for continued firm growth for the rest of 2017, senior economist Bert Colijn at ING was quoted as saying in a report from AFP.

At the latest Governing Council meeting of European Central Bank (ECB) on July 20, the bank decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged.

(With inputs from AFP)