Growth in the euro area is accelerating, but inflation remains off – Yahoo Finance Spain

Economic growth in the euro zone accelerated in the first quarter to 0.6%, and unemployment declined, but inflation, the great concern of the European Central Bank, again showed negative (-0.2%) figures, according to official figures released Friday.

that provisional growth figure of + 0.6% from January to March is substantially better than analysts expected, according to estimates released by Facset, which estimated growth of 0.4%.

in annual terms, the euro area (19 countries with the same currency) has increased by 1.6%. In the last two quarters of 2015, the area recorded the same rate, 0.3%. Comparatively, the United States obtained a growth of 0.5% in the first quarter of 2016.

“Little by little, the pieces fit together,” Holger Schmieding reacted, Berenberg Bank, who said “despite of serious market turmoil in January and February, the economy in the eurozone started well 2016 “.

Bert Colijn, an analyst at Dutch financial institution ING, noted for his part that” the euro zone challenges turbulent world “.

the improvement” was probably supported by consumer spending, but also, according to data from Austria and France, for the good performance of business investment, “estimated Howard Archer, analyst at IHS Global

-. Falling energy prices –

on the unemployment front, the news was also good in the first quarter. In March, the number of unemployed fell to 10.2% compared with 10.4% in February (revised figure), announced Eurostat.

That figure is better than the consensus of analysts interviewed by Facset, which predicted 10.3% in March. This is the lowest unemployment rate recorded in the euro area since August 2011, Eurostat said.

Despite these two good records, inflation again cooled tempers. In April it fell to negative numbers, -0.2%.

The eurozone had registered a 0% inflation in March, and analysts had hoped to return to repeat that guarismo in April.

the ECB maintained for more than a year ago an exceptional package of monetary stimulus measures, including a key interest rate of zero percent and buying debt, inflation resume flight accompany the growth, without much success so far

the ECB’s monetary policy (Toronto: BCE-PA.TO – news). has generated sharp criticism in Germany, whose savers complain that that interest rate eat them savings

“If you look at the numbers is not difficult to discover where that decline comes (inflation), largely: the fall in energy prices.” said Michael Hewson , CMC Markets (London: CMCX.L – news). in London

“Given the sharp rise in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would appear that energy prices are also acting as fiscal stimulus and helping to support the recovery, “said

Archer (Oslo: 13072052.OL – news)., of IHS Global, said that the ECB will emerge strengthened from this good growth figure and thus remain the expectation in the coming months.

Simultaneously with the publication of Eurostat, France and Spain also announced its growth figures. France grew by 0.5% in the first quarter, better than expected, and Spain 0.8%, despite the political crisis

.