Eurozone GDP growth slows down in Q3: Eurostat

Economic growth in the euro zone slowed down in the third quarter, according to the first estimate by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

GDP rose by 0.4 percent in the euro area and 0.5 percent in the EU27 in the third quarter, the report stated. In the second quarter, growth rates were 1 percent in both zones.

Household consumption expenditures rose during the period by 0.3 percent, compared to 0.2 percent in the previous quarter.

A 0.3 percent gain is hardly a consumer boom, even by the euro zone standards, Jonathan Loynes, an economist at Capital Economics said in a note.

However, exports fell to 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent in the euro area and EU27 respectively, from 4.3 percent and 4 percent in the second quarter.

Imports in the euro area were 1.7 percent, down from 4.2 percent in the second quarter.

In short, while the euro-zone economy appears to be weathering the sovereign debt crisis reasonably well for now, there are still good reasons to be concerned about the outlook over the coming quarters, Loynes said.

Sweden saw the strongest growth at 2.1 percent sequentially, followed by Finalnd at 1.3 percent and the Czech Republic at 1.1 percent.

However, Greece continued to see the worst economic growth at negative 1.1 percent, followed by Romania.

The Netherlands experienced the worst drop sequentially as growth slipped to negative 0.1 percent in the third quarter, from 0.9 percent in the second.

Separately, the Eurostat reported that the industrial producer price index rose by 0.4 percent sequentially in October in the euro area and by 0.5 percent in the EU27.

Excluding the energy sector, prices rose 0.2 percent in both the regions.