If you’d like the “feel good” version of this story, then its: “Eurozone Growth Triples Between Q3 and Q4 2013!” On the other hand, if you prefer your economic information to be couched in more solid terms, I can offer you: “Eurozone Recovery Sees Q4 Growth Up To 0.3%” – of course, both statements are true.
The good news is that the Eurozone economy has expanded between the third and fourth quarter of last year, meaning that the bloc has “enjoyed” three consecutive quarters of growth after emerging from six quarters of contraction. However, the fact that unemployment within the Eurozone sits at about 12%, close enough to its record high, suggests that the recovery remains very sluggish. Employment is a lagging indicator of the economic cycle and the fact that there has yet to be a significant improvement underlines the shallow nature of the recovery within the bloc. Obviously, the data relates growth within the bloc excluding Latvia, the 18th member which only joined this January.
Taken as a whole (and therefore including the UK) EU growth for the 28 member group was up by 0.4% in Q4. Preliminary figures from Eurostat for 2013 suggest that the Eurozone output contracted by 0.4% over the course of the year whereas the EU managed expansion of 0.1%.
France saw Q4 growth of 0.3%, avoiding recession and contributing to full year growth of 0.3% - France has the fifth largest economy in the world. Germany produced Q4 growth of 0.4% and full year growth of 1.3%. Beleaguered Italy finaly ended a two-year recession in Q4, posting growth of 0.1%, but its economy still shrank by 1.9% over the course of the year.