Fastest Economic Growth of EU in 2017

The EU economy was able to increase at its fastest pace after a decade, highlighting the surge of Europe’s economic recovery based on the official data released yesterday. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the European economy grew by 2.5 percent last year, which is the most rapid growth rate since the 3 percent expansion recorded in 2007. According to Eurostat, this is the year prior the global financial crisis blow up. With 28 countries that consist the European Union, the growth rate last year came in at 2.5 percent.

The latest data released further indicates the economic growth of the eurozone resumed its strong momentum during the fourth quarter. While the preliminary flash estimate revealed that the country surged by 0.6 percent on a quarterly basis during the last quarter of 2017. This coincides with the earlier expectations with a slightly lower figure than the 0.7 percent in the previous quarter.

On Tuesday, France’s Stat agency Insee stated that the French economy had gained 0.6 percent amid the final three months of 2017. It further presented net exports contributed significantly to the country’s growth driven by global growth, said by the ING bank Economist Bert Colijn. On a separate report, the economic sentiment suffered from an unexpected decline in January but was able to maintain its position at an  "exuberant" level.

The European Commission spoke that the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) slightly weakened in January against the previous 17-year high from both the EU and the euro area. Generally, the expansion of the Eurozone for 2017 showed stronger stance among other advanced markets such as Britain and the United States.

According to Colijn, some political uncertainties including Italy’s election and German coalition talks could bring major impact against the economic forecast as well as to the favorable growth that could tighten current financial status. He added that businesses showed new orders continue to ramp up along with the employment growth and capacity utilization rate. Hence, it is possible to assume that the eurozone economy will continue to have an optimistic performance in the following months.