The European Union (EU) GDP contracted by 0.4% and the employment rate decreased by 0.3% in the first quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter.According to data released this Tuesday by the Bureau of Community Statistics, Eurostat.

While you are in the Eurozone, The GDP fell 0.6% and employment 0.3% between January and March.

Compared to the first quarter of 2020, GDP contracted by approximately 1.8% In the single currency area and 1.7% In the community club, while employment a 2.1% and 1.8%, Straight.

Eurostat on Tuesday released its first estimate of European employment development and revised GDP data, which confirm this The European economy has returned to recession Between January and March this year, after the accumulation of two quarters of fall.

distance Record collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic in the second quarter of 2020, 11.6% in the euro area and 11.2% in the European Union, The economy regained the ground it lost in the third quarter (+ 12.5% ​​and + 11.7% respectively), however New waves of COVID-19 and the consequent decline in activity caused GDP to drop again in the last three months of the year. (-0.7% in the Eurozone and -0.5% in the European Union).

The decline continued between January and March 2021, the quarter in which restrictions have been largely maintained against the pandemic, with … It is located in all major European economies except for FranceThat grew 0.4% quarterly.

In Germany GDP decreased 1.7%; In Spain and the Netherlands 0.5% and in Italy 0.4%, although the main declines were recorded in the European Union as a whole in Portugal (-3.3%), Latvia (-2.6%) and Slovakia (-1.8%))..

On the contrary, major increases in GDP are observed in Romania (2.8%), Bulgaria (2.5%) and Cyprus (2%).

On an annual basis, the main decline in GDP was recorded in Portugal (-5.4%), Spain (-4.3%) and Germany (-3%), while the only increases were in France (1.5%), Lithuania (1%) and Slovakia (0, 5%).

Overall, the year-on-year decline was more moderate in the first quarter of 2021 than it was in the last quarter of 2020, when GDP fell by a factor of 4,9% In the euro area and 4,6% At twenty-seven.

In terms of employment, the quarterly decline between January and March represents a change of direction, as it closed the fourth quarter of 2020 0.4% increase In the number of people employed both in the single currency area and in the European Union, and in the third quarter a 1% and 0.9% improvement, Straight.

In year-on-year comparison, the decline has decreased in 2,1% In the euro area and 1.8% In the European Union, in both cases it was one-tenth higher than that recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020 according to Eurostat, which does not give employment figures by country.

(With information from EFE)

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