BRUSSELS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the euro area and 0.5 percent in the wider European Union (EU) in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026, Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, said in a preliminary flash estimate released on Thursday.
On a year-on-year basis, GDP expanded by 1.0 percent in the euro area and by 1.2 percent in the EU, up from 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent respectively in the previous quarter.
Among members with available Q2 data, Ireland recorded the strongest quarter-on-quarter growth at 3.9 percent, followed by Lithuania at 1.7 percent and Sweden at 1.4 percent. Belgium and Austria recorded the lowest growth rates, both registering no growth.
For the euro area's largest economies, Germany, France and Italy each recorded quarter-on-quarter GDP growth of 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2026, while Spain's economy expanded by 0.7 percent, Eurostat data showed.
The latest figures followed a flat first quarter of 2026, when GDP remained stable in the euro area and increased by 0.1 percent in the EU, pointing to a rebound in the second quarter.
Bert Colijn, chief economist for the Netherlands at ING, said the conflict in the Middle East currently represented the main downside risk to the euro area economy.
However, unless the conflict undergoes a prolonged and significant re-escalation, euro area GDP could continue to grow at a solid, though unspectacular, pace in the coming quarters, he said.
The European Central Bank (ECB) decided last week to keep its three key interest rates unchanged, saying its Governing Council remained well positioned to navigate the uncertainty caused by the Middle East conflict. ■
