Fresh estimates for the first quarter of 2014 suggest that the eurozone’s gross national product (GDP) rose by 0.2 percent between January and March, while EU28’s GDP went up by 0.3 percent. The increases in GDP are better compared to the first quarter of last year, when the eurozone rose by 0.9 percent and the entire Union by 1.4 percent. By contrast, during the first quarter of 2014, GDP in the United States remained unchanged compared with the fourth quarter of 2013 when the GDP increased by 0.7 percent. Compared with the same quarter last year, the biggest progress has been made by Poland, Hungary, and United Kingdom, which improved their 2013-2014 score by more than 3 percent each. Lithuania, Germany, and the Czech Republic follow with more than a 2-percent increase. In contrast, Cyprus, Estonia, and Greece have seen their GDP slumping by -4.1, -1.5, and -1.1 percent respectively.
At the same time, euro area’s inflation increased from 0.5 percent in March to 0.7 percent in April which partially helped disperse the worries of disinflation in the common currency area. A year earlier, inflation rate was 1.2 percent. The collective EU28’s inflation rate in April was better than that of the Eurozone when it logged 0.8 percent. Despite a piecemeal rise in the rate of inflation, a number of EU Member States experienced disinflation. Greece logged inflation totaling -1.6 percent, while Bulgaria and Cyprus scored -1.3 percent and -0.4 percent respectively. Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, and Portugal all followed with below-zero inflation rates. On the contrary, the highest inflation was in Austria and Romania (both 1.6 percent), Finland (1.3 percent) and Germany (1.1 percent). Compared to March 2014, inflation decreased in seven EU economies, remained stable in four, and went up in sixteen. The most important factors fuelling inflation in the eurozone were reported to be package holidays, tobacco, electricity, fuels for transport, telecom sector, and vegetables.
