Eurozone Q3 economic growth unchanged at 0.3% despite Brexit
The eurozone’s economy eked out another quarter of modest growth in the three months to September, shrugging off the U.K.’s surprise decision to leave the European Union, but adding to concerns about its future ability to deliver prosperity.
The EU’s statistics agency Monday said the combined economic output of the currency area’s 19 members grew at an annualized rate of 1.4%, well below the 2.9% recorded by the U.S. and the 2.0% recorded by the U.K. during the same period.
Weak as it was, the continuation of the recovery will come as a relief to eurozone policy makers, who had worried that the U.K.’s June vote to depart the EU would weaken business and consumer confidence, while they also feared the sharp drop in the pound over recent months would hit eurozone exports to its second-largest overseas market.
For rate setters at the European Central Bank, the news was mixed in separate figures published by Eurostat that showed a pickup in the annual rate of inflation to its highest level since June 2014. Consumer prices rose 0.5% in October from a year earlier, a pickup from the 0.4% rate of inflation recorded in September but far short of the ECB’s target, which is just below 2%.
