The gross domestic product (GDP) of the euro area recorded in the third quarter of 2026 a quarterly growth of 0.4%, which represents a moderation of two tenths compared with the rebound of 0.6% posted between April and June, according to the first estimate released this Friday by Eurostat.
For the European Union as a whole, the Community statistical office expects GDP to increase by 0.5% between July and September, which also implies a slowdown of two tenths compared with the expansion of 0.7% observed in the second quarter of 2026.
In year-on-year terms and with seasonally adjusted data, economic activity increased by 1.3% in the euro area and by 1.5% in the EU as a whole during the third quarter of 2026, compared with the same period of the previous year.
Between July and September of 2026, Ireland (+5.5%) was the country with the largest increase in GDP compared with the previous quarter, ahead of Estonia, Spain and the Netherlands (all with +0.6%), while Lithuania (-1%) and France (-0.1%) recorded declines in their activity.
In this regard, Eurostat underscores that the preliminary estimate of Ireland's GDP is classified as an outcome of the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) Series Frontier, so "special care should be taken when interpreting this estimate".
According to the provisional figures published this Friday, Spain once again stood at the head of economic growth in the third quarter among the main EU economies, with an increase of 0.6%, compared with the 0.2% rise in Germany, the stagnation of Italy and the 0.1% fall in France.