European economy expands by 0.2 percent in Q1 2010

According to flash estimates released on May 12 by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, in the first quarter of 2010 the gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union member states (EU-27) rose by 0.2 percent quarter on quarter. In the last quarter of 2009, the economy of the EU-27 had expanded by 0.1 percent from the previous quarter.
 
Accordingly, in comparison with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP in the EU-27 improved in the first quarter of 2010 by 0.3 percent, after a year-on-year decrease of 2.3 percent in the previous quarter.
 
In the first quarter of 2010, among member states for which seasonally adjusted GDP data are available, Hungary recorded the highest growth rate with an increase of 0.9 percent compared with the previous quarter, followed by Slovakia with 0.8 percent and Italy with 0.5 percent.
 
In the given period, among the main economies of the EU, GDP remained unchanged in Austria, rose by 0.2 percent in the UK, it improved by 0.2 percent in Germany, increased by 0.1 percent both in France and in Spain and was up 0.5 percent in Italy, all compared to Q4 2009.