The European Union's logo in the Irish language, to mark the golden jubilee of the signing of the Treaty of Rome

GDP grew by 0.9% in both the Eurozone (EA12)¹ and the EU25¹ during the fourth quarter of 2006, compared to the previous quarter, according to flash estimates published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Commission. In the third quarter of 2006, growth rates were +0.5% in the Eurozone and +0.6% in the EU25.

Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP grew by 3.3% in the Eurozone and by 3.4% in the EU25 in the fourth quarter of 2006, after +2.7% and +3.0% respectively in the previous quarter.

During the fourth quarter of 2006, US GDP increased by 0.9% compared to the previous quarter, after +0.5% in the third quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2005, GDP grew by 3.4% in the US, after +3.0% in the previous quarter.

Over the whole year 2006, GDP grew by 2.7% in the Eurozone and by 2.9% in the EU25, compared to +1.4% and +1.7% respectively for the year 2005. In the US, GDP growth for the year 2006 was +3.4%, after +3.2% in 2005.

1. The Eurozone (EA12) consisted of 12 Member States up to 31 December 2006: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. From 1 January 2007 the Eurozone (EA13) also includes Slovenia.

Up to 31 December 2006 the European Union (EU25) included: Belgium (BE), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK). From 1 January 2007 the European Union (EU27) also includes Bulgaria (BG) and Romania (RO).

Summary quality information

European quarterly national accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA95). The flash estimate of 2006 Q4 GDP growth presented in this release is based on Member States’ data as available, directly covering 88% of Eurozone GDP (82% of EU25 GDP). For more details of the flash methodology please refer to News Release 55/2003 of 15 May 2003.

Simulations and previously published flash estimates have shown the flash estimation procedure to be reliable. Over the last 24 quarters, the flash estimate of GDP growth on the previous quarter for the Eurozone when compared to the following first regular release has led to an average revision of less than 0.01 percentage points. It correctly anticipated the acceleration or deceleration of growth 20 times. The value of the growth rate was correctly anticipated 20 times and differed by ±0.1 percentage points 4 times.

With this flash estimate, Eurozone and EU25 GDP figures for earlier quarters are not revised, so the growth rates till the third quarter 2006, published in News Release 5/2007 of 11 January 2007, remain unchanged. All figures presented in this release are subject to further revision with the two regular estimates of GDP for the fourth quarter 2006, scheduled for 6 March 2007 and 12 April 2007.