EU economies grow at fastest rate in decade in 2017, latest figures show

The eurozone grew at its fastest rate in a decade in 2017, according to the latest official estimate.

Eurostat said on Tuesday that the GDP of the currency area expanded by 2.5 per cent in the calendar year, the fastest rate of growth since a 3.4 per cent expansion in 2007, the year before the global financial crisis broke.

The eurozone is in the midst of a broad cyclical expansion, after years of economic stagnation and rolling crises, fuelled by recovering confidence and monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank.

Fastest since 2007

The UK, by contrast, is estimated to have grown by 1.8 per cent in 2017, down from 2016’s rate and the weakest expansion since 2012, mainly reflecting the impact of higher inflation in the wake of the 2016 Brexit vote.

Eurostat said the quarterly growth rate for the bloc was 0.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2017, slightly down from the 0.7 per cent rate in the second and third quarters.

The Office for National Statistics put the UK’s quarterly growth rate for the final three months of the year at 0.5 per cent.

But the divergence in the year on year growth rates was stark, with the eurozone GDP up by 2.7 per cent and UK growth of just 1.5 per cent.

The International Monetary Fund, last week downgraded its outlook for UK growth for 2019, the year of Brexit, from 1.6 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, the fund raised the eurozone’s outlook in 2018 from 1.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent.

And for 2019 it upgraded the bloc’s outlook from 1.7 per cent to 2 per cent.