The Eurozone was in Recession in the First Quarter of 2023

The Eurozone economy was in a technical recession in the first three months of 2023, according to data published earlier today by the European statistical office Eurostat, BTA reported.

A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline in gross domestic product (GDP) and for the currency union it is counted after the downward revision of data for both the first quarter of the current year and the fourth quarter of 2022.

Eurozone GDP contracted by 0.1 percent on a quarterly basis, although it rose by 1 percent on a year-on-year basis, Eurostat data reported.

Preliminary data published on May 16 were for growth of 0.1 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, Reuters recalls.

The revision was largely due to the second estimate by Germany's statistics office, which showed that Europe's largest economy was in recession at the start of 2023.

Data for the euro area in the fourth quarter of 2022 has also been revised downwards, to a drop of 0.1 percent from the previous figure of zero.