GERMAN ECONOMY SEES `RECORD`GROWTH OF 2.2%
Baku, August 13 (AZERTAC). The German economy grew by 2.2% in the three months to the end of June, its fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years, official figures show, according to BBC News.
“Such quarter-on-quarter growth has never been recorded before in reunified Germany,” the national statistics office, Destatis, said.
The main reason for the higher-than-expected growth was strong exports, helped by a weaker euro.
The eurozone economy grew by 1% during the quarter.
This compares with growth of 0.2% in the first three months of the year, the area`s official statistics agency, Eurostat, said.
The French economy grew by 0.6% in the second quarter, also up from 0.2%, while the Spanish economy grew by 0.2%, compared with 0.1% in the previous three months.
The pace of growth in the Italian economy remained the same, at 0.4%.
Greece, however, saw its economy shrink by 1.5% during the quarter. The country`s government has instigated a series of far-reaching austerity measures recently, designed to reduce its high budget deficit.
All the second quarter figures are initial estimates and could be revised up or down in the coming months.
In the US, however, second quarter growth was 0.6%, down from 0.9% between January and March, raising questions about the strength of the recovery in the world`s biggest economy.
“Second quarter GDP data for the eurozone`s major economies suggest that the region performed very well, both by its own and international standards,” said Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics.
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