Today it has been reported that the French and German economies, the two largest in the Eurozone, have performed worse than expected in the second quarter of the year.
In the first quarter, Germany saw their GDP grow by 0.7%, but in the 3 months between April and June it had declined by 0.2%.
The government are confident that economic growth will once again be on the rise however, predicting that the growth will be in the region of 1.8% by the years end, 4 times as faster than the previous year.
The French however, for the second quarter in a row have seen no economic growth. This has been seen as a major surprise from an economist standpoint and leaves President Francois Hollande currently unable to fulfil his promise of getting the country growing again within 2 years.
One of the reasons for the lack of growth over the first half of the year is due to midweek public holidays, but it’s believed that many are not worried by their ‘steady progression’.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin admitted that is was majorly unlikely for the country to hit their target of 1% growth by the end of the year and was quoted in French newspaper Le Monde saying, “The truth is that, as a direct consequence of sluggish growth and insufficient inflation, France will not meet its public deficit target this year despite a complete control of spending,”
The lack of growth of both economies is a huge blow to Europe’s recovery after Italy once again fell into administration.
