FRANKFURT, May 15 (Reuters) – The euro zone economy grew 0.3% in the first quarter of the year, suggesting a slow recovery after six quarters of stagnant or negative growth, Eurostat said on Wednesday, confirming a preliminary estimate.
However, in the previous quarter, a 0.1% decrease was confirmed, indicating that the federation was in recession, as many economists had long predicted.
The economy contracted 0.1% in the third and fourth quarters, meeting the traditional recession definition of two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Among the main euro zone countries, Spain fared well with growth of 0.7% in the first quarter, while Germany, France and Italy were at or below the euro zone average.
Meanwhile, employment grew 0.3% in the first quarter, confirming signs that the labor market continues to tighten, as companies hoarded workers in anticipation of a rebound in growth.
While the European Central Bank has raised interest rates to historic highs in recent years to tightly control growth and inflation, firms have retained workers unlike in other recessions.
The main reason may be the post-pandemic experience when they struggled to hire workers and much of the service sector was unable to function due to severe labor shortages.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson; Editing in Spanish by Benjamin Mejias Valencia)
