The European Union economy contracted 0.1 percent in the first quarter of the previous year in the fourth quarter, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier. This represents a decrease of 0.3% and 1.3% for the Eurozone, respectively. Transformation From Eurostat’s revised GDP data series. Ireland stands out high on the field with a growth rate of 7.8 percent, but Croatia can’t complain either (+5.8 percent). Estonia (+4.8 percent) and Greece (+4.4 percent) also did very well in the first quarter.
Hungary’s 2% GDP growth rate tied for seventh place, along with Cyprus and Lithuania.
Better-than-expected GDP growth generated annual growth forecasts of between five and seven percent.
GDP contracted by 1.7 percent in Latvia and 1.8 percent in Germany when comparing two consecutive quarters. In Slovakia, the rate of decline is 2%. Portugal has been hit hard by the economic downturn, forcing the Lausanne family to post a 3.3 percent drop in GDP.
The number of employees in the European Union decreased by 0.2 per cent and in the euro area by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year.
Hungary was the best at comparing employment indicators: in the first quarter of 2021, 1.1 percent more people will work than in the fourth quarter of 2020.
In Spain, this rate is more than one percent, and in Lithuania and Cyprus it reaches +0.8 percent. The situation for workers is far from optimistic in Latvia, where the employment rate has fallen by about 4% in a few months. The percentage in Greece was -1.7 percent and in Slovakia -1.1 percent.
