According to the estimates released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, during the first quarter of the current year gross domestic product (GDP) remained stable quarter on quarter both in the euro area and in the EU-27 with 0.0 percent and +0.1 percent changes respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2011, quarter-on-quarter growth rates were -0.3 percent in both zones.
Compared with the same quarter of 2011, seasonally adjusted GDP remained stable in the euro area and increased by 0.1 percent in the EU-27 in the first quarter of 2012, after year-on-year increases of 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent respectively in the previous quarter.
Eurostat also estimated that during the first quarter of 2012 GDP in the United States increased by 0.5 percent compared with the previous quarter, after a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and rose by 2.1 percent year on year, after a 1.6 percent year-on-year increase recorded in the previous quarter.