BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Household consumption was the main driver of euro zone economic growth in the third quarter, the European Union’s statistics office data showed on Tuesday, with a further positive contribution from trade.
Eurostat confirmed the euro zone economy expanded 2.2% quarter-on-quarter in the July-September period for a 3.9% year-on-year rise as the economy continued to recover from the deep pandemic-induced recession in 2020.
Household consumption contributed 2.1 percentage points to the quarterly growth number with net trade adding another 0.3 points.
But government spending added only 0.1 point to the final result and despite the first payouts from the EU’s recovery fund for green and digital investment, gross fixed capital formation fell sharply, subtracting 0.2 points from the final figure.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)
