Eurozone GDP Growth Confirmed At 0.4%; Employment Rises

(RTTNews) - The euro area economy expanded as initially estimated in the third quarter and employment growth showed an improvement, data from Eurostat showed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product climbed 0.4 percent sequentially, which was double the 0.2 percent expansion seen in the second quarter, flash estimate showed.

On a yearly basis, economic growth increased to 0.9 percent in the third quarter from 0.6 percent in the previous quarter. The annual rate also matched the preliminary estimate.

Further, data showed that the number of employed persons increased 0.2 percent on quarter, which was double the 0.1 percent rise in the second quarter.

Annually, growth in employment improved to 1.0 percent in the third quarter from 0.9 percent in the prior period.

Capital Economics' economist Jack Allen-Reynolds said the pick-up in economic growth is unlikely to be sustained.

The economist said timelier business and consumer surveys suggest that growth will ease in the fourth quarter and it is likely to remain subdued next year too.

"Given that poor productivity growth has kept unit labour cost growth high, contributing to the stickiness in underlying inflation, a sustained improvement in productivity would strengthen the case for the ECB to press on with interest rate cuts," the economist added.

Another official data today showed that industrial production in the currency bloc declined in September on decreases in energy and capital goods output.

Industrial output fell 2.0 percent month-on-month in September, in contrast to the 1.5 percent increase in August. The decline was also bigger than forecast of -1.3 percent.

Year-on-year, the decline in industrial production deepened to 2.8 percent in September from 0.1 percent in August. Output was expected to drop 2.0 percent.