The growth of the European economy has hit a halt in the third year of the year, after two consecutive periods of growth, standing at 0.3% as of September, according to data published this year by Eurostat. These data indicate a halt in the economic boom of both the 27 and 19 members of the eurozone as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, which undermined the recovery of these countries after the coronavirus pandemic. Concerns about energy prices grew during the summer months, as a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia and efforts to reduce Putin’s dependence on gas.
Ireland is one of the countries that has prevented this slowdown from being more dramatic, since its economy grew by 2.3%, which has driven the global average up. On the other hand, major economies such as Germany, France, Italy and even Spain grew below 0.5%, while the Netherlands came to decrease with negative two tenths. These months were key to preparing for winter and stockpiling gas, however, the countries chose to respond separately to this situation, so the results were very different depending on the supply alternatives they had.
For a total of 11 countries in the European environment, the months between July and September were negative, since they closed the quarter with data below zero. The fall in Estonia is especially notable, which went from growing by 1.3% up to June to decreasing by 1.8%. Along the same lines, the Slovenian economy fell by 1.2 percentage points in this period.
