Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, released today, on June 4, its first estimates regarding gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union member states (EU-27) in the first quarter of 2010, making no revision to its previous estimate, which indicated a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0.2 percent, as SteelOrbis previously reported. In the last quarter of 2009, GDP in the region had also increased by 0.2 percent over the third quarter last year.
However, Eurostat corrected the year-on-year change rate for the first quarter to a 0.5 percent increase, from the previously announced 0.3 percent increase.
During the first quarter of 2010, household final consumption in the EU-27 fell by 0.2 percent, while
investments regressed by 1.2 percent, both compared to Q4 2009. In the given period, exports in the region improved by 2.3 percent and imports increased 3.4 percent over the last quarter of 2009.