Eurozone economy shrinks surprisingly

This was announced by the statistics authority Eurostat on Friday according to a further estimate. In a previous estimate, the authority had reported growth of 0.1 percent. Analysts had expected a confirmation of the previous survey. The main reason for the downward revision was the economic slump in Ireland.

Economic output in Ireland fell by 12.1 percent in the first three months of the year. There are always extreme fluctuations in important economic data on the island. This is due to multinational corporations, whose business results influence the country's economic data and in some cases distort it significantly.

At the end of 2025, the economy in the single currency area had grown by 0.2%. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, GDP in the eurozone rose by 0.3% in the months from January to March. Here, too, a previous estimate was revised downwards.

Among the largest economies in the eurozone, Spain recorded the strongest growth at 0.6% quarter-on-quarter. In Germany and Italy, economic output grew by 0.3 percent each, while in France it shrank by 0.1 percent.