THE EU grew at its strongest pace in three years in the second three months of 2010, driven ahead by a blistering 2.2 per cent expansion in Germany. Although the picture was mixed across the EU, the trend was almost universally towards an acceleration in the pace of recovery.
Growth was registered in 17 of the 18 countries that reported second- quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data, with average growth of 1 per cent. No figures were available for Ireland, which is among the last states to publish data.
Germany, the EU’s largest economy by far, accounted for much of the expansion. Not only has unified Germany never recorded as rapid a rate of growth, its economy is bigger than previously thought, as earlier GDP figures were revised upwards for the first quarter and for 2009.
All sectors of the economy expanded, including consumer spending, which has been unusually weak.
The loosening of purse strings by 90 million Germans has led to more purchases of goods and services from other countries. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said last night export market growth boded well for our “emerging recovery”.
However, weaker euro zone countries, such as Italy, Spain and Greece, had lower growth, which could put pressure on the ECB in setting a single interest rate for the euro zone.