The European economy shrank by a smaller-than-expected 0.7 per cent in the last three months of 2020 as businesses in France and Germany weathered the storm of a renewed round of lockdowns.
Tuesday's official figures offer a crumb of comfort but the outlook for the eurozone is still gloomy with the 19 member states all expected to lag behind China and the US in their post-Covid recoveries.
The eurozone shrank 6 per cent for the year according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.
The figure underscores a rollercoaster 12 months of freakish economic data with a retail sales collapse fuelling a plunge of 11.7 per cent in the second quarter, the biggest since 1995, followed by a rebound of 12.4 per cent in the third quarter in late summer.
The winter Covid wave has meant new restrictions on travel, business and social activity but companies in some sectors such as manufacturing have been better able to adjust than services businesses such as hotels and restaurants.
The German economy, Europe’s biggest, grew by a scant 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter while France experienced a smaller-than-expected drop of 1.3 per cent. Overall, economists had expected the eurozone economy to shrink by as much as 2.5 per cent.
The eurozone is expected to reach 2019 levels of economic output only in 2022, officials from the European Central Bank forecast.
That contrasts with China, the only major economy to grow in 2020 with a 2.3 per cent increase in output, and with the US where Congressional budget experts foresee a rebound to 2019 levels by the middle of this year.
The International Monetary Fund last month cut its forecast for eurozone growth this year to 4.2 per cent from 5.2 per cent.
The figures arrive amid disenchantment and finger-pointing over the slow pace of vaccine distribution in the EU compared with countries such as the UAE, Israel and the UK.
“While the eurozone GDP data were better than we were expecting only a week ago, the short-term prospects for the European economy remain clouded by a challenging health situation in several countries and an underwhelming start of the vaccination rollout,” said Nicola Nobile, lead eurozone economist at Oxford Economics.
Results
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
WISH
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UAE v IRELAND
All matches start at 10am, and will be played in Abu Dhabi
1st ODI, Friday, January 8
2nd ODI, Sunday, January 10
3rd ODI, Tuesday, January 12
4th ODI, Thursday, January 14
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch automatic
Power: 169bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh54,500
On sale: now
More coverage from the Future Forum
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GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
