The eurozone’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth accelerated to 1.5% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, following a 1.2% increase in the previous quarter.
Within the European Union, GDP rose by 1.6% year-on-year, up from 1.4% in the previous period, as reported by the European statistical service.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, both the eurozone and EU GDP grew by 0.6%, after respective increases of 0.3% and 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Year-on-year, from January to March, Ireland (21.1%), Poland (3.7%), and Denmark (3.6%) recorded the highest economic growth, in contrast with Slovenia (-0.8%), Austria, Hungary, and Luxembourg (-0.4%), and Latvia (-0.3%), which saw declines.
Portugal’s year-on-year GDP growth stood at 1.6%, slowing down from 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Ireland posted the largest quarter-on-quarter GDP increase at 9.7%, followed by Malta (2.1%) and Cyprus (1.3%).
The most significant quarter-on-quarter decreases were observed in Luxembourg (-1.0%), Slovenia (-0.8%), and both Denmark and Portugal (-0.5%).
Eurostat further reports that employment rose by 0.7% year-on-year in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU, compared to 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively, in the previous period.
In the first three months of the year, quarterly employment increased by 0.2% in the euro area and remained stable across the 27 member states, following increases of 0.1% and 0.2% between October and December 2024.
