Euro zone Q1 Growth Beats US

Economic growth in the euro zone overtook the U.S. in the first quarter, posting its fastest rate in almost two years, official data released Wednesday show.

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the 19-member euro area rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 1 percent year-on-year. That compares with analyst expectations for a 0.5 percent quarterly rise and 1.1 percent annual increase as slower growth from Germany weighed.

Still, the quarterly expansion was the strongest since the second quarter of 2013, while the annual rate was higher than the 0.2 percent annual rate notched up by the U.S. economy in the first quarter.

“When the US economy practically stalls in the first quarter and Japan’s is still struggling to pull out of recession, quarterly growth of 0.4 percent in the ailing euro zone looks positively sprightly,” Nicholas Spiro, managing director at Spiro Sovereign Strategy, said in a note.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza