Eurozone economy records slight expansion with Austria taking lead

RIYADH: The Eurozone’s economy recorded a quarterly expansion of 2.2 per cent, a little unchanged from the previous quarter’s growth of 2.1 per cent, according to estimates by Eurostat.

Countries that experienced the highest growth rates were Austria, France and Portugal as their gross domestic products rose by 3.3, 3 and 2.9 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Germany’s economy grew by 1.8 per cent while Italy’s jumped by 2.6 per cent.

On an annual basis, the eurozone’s growth rate was 3.7 per cent in this year’s third quarter.

US industrial production

Industrial production in the US went up by a yearly rate of 5.1 per cent in October up from 4.6 per cent in the prior month, according to the Federal Reserve.

On a monthly basis, industrial production in the country grew by 1.6 per cent in October following the previous month’s decline of 1.3 per cent.

Both manufacturing and utilities output increased by 1.2 per cent while mining production was 4.1 per cent higher compared to last year.

Meanwhile, growth in the US monthly retail sales reached its highest level since March, standing at 1.7 per cent in October, greater than the previous month’s level of 0.8 per cent, the US Census Bureau said.

This was attributed to consumers’ expenditure on early holiday shopping.

Italy’s inflation

Italy’s yearly inflation rate rose to 3 per cent in October up from 2.5 per cent in September, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics.

This is the highest rate since September 2012 and was driven by rising energy prices as it surged by an annual rate of 24.9 per cent. Particularly, prices of regulated energy products went up by 42.3 per cent.

Moreover, costs of transportation services increased by 2.4 per cent. In addition, the monthly inflation rate reached 0.7 per cent in October compared to a deflation of 0.2 per cent in October.

Jordan’s consumer prices

Jordan’s annual inflation rate eased to 1.61 per cent in October down from 1.84 per cent in September, the country’s official statistics agency said.

This was mainly due to 0.96 per cent rise in transportation costs and 0.41 per cent increase in the prices of meat and poultry.

On monthly terms, consumer prices rose by 0.06 per cent in October, down from 0.18 per cent in the previous month.