Economics
Multispeed Euro-Area Recovery Underpins ECB Call for Caution
- First-quarter growth in 19-nation bloc confirmed at 0.5%
- Expansion led by Spain, Germany, with Greece back in recession
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The euro area’s economic recovery is on track -- just not for everyone.
Growth of 0.5 percent in the three months through March -- confirmed by the European Union’s statistics office on Tuesday -- masks still-uneven momentum in the region’s 19 nations. While Spain registered an expansion of 0.8 percent and gains in gross domestic product exceeded 1 percent in some of the bloc’s smaller nations, the Greek economy contracted for a second quarter, putting it back into recession.