In the second quarter of this year, Latvia was among five EU countries with the most pronounced annual decline in gross domestic product (GDP), according to preliminary estimates from Eurostat. Industrial production in Latvia also fell by 5.5% over the year, below the European average. In the second quarter of this year, Latvia was among five European Union (EU) countries that recorded a decline in GDP compared to the same period a year earlier, according to rapid assessment data released on Wednesday by the EU's statistical office Eurostat for the 22 countries in the bloc. According to seasonally adjusted data, Latvia's GDP fell by 0.4% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Year-on-year economic declines in the second quarter were also recorded in Germany (-0.1%), Finland (-0.7%), Ireland (-1.4%) and Estonia (-1.7%), while GDP remained unchanged in Austria and Sweden. Among the countries for which preliminary data are available, the fastest economic growth over the period was observed in Poland (+4%), followed by Cyprus (+3.7%), Spain (+2.9%) and Bulgaria (+2%). Lithuania's GDP increased by 1.4%. In the second quarter, compared with April-June last year, GDP increased by 0.8% on average in the EU and by 0.6% in the eurozone. Compared with January-March, GDP grew by 0.3% in both the EU and the eurozone. In a quarterly comparison, economic growth was recorded in 17 EU countries for which data are available. It was fastest in Poland (+1.5%), followed by Ireland (+1.2%) and the Netherlands (+1%). A decline was recorded in Germany (-0.1%), Hungary (-0.2%), Sweden (-0.8%) and Latvia (-1.1%), while GDP remained unchanged in Austria. Lithuania's economy grew by 0.9% quarter-on-quarter, while Estonia's GDP increased by 0.2%. Data for Denmark, Greece, Croatia, Luxembourg and Malta are not available. In June, industrial output in Latvia fell by 5.5% compared to June 2023, demonstrating a sharper decline than the EU and eurozone averages, according to data on the 26 member states of the bloc published on Wednesday by the EU's statistical office Eurostat. A contraction in June in year-on-year comparison was recorded in 16 EU countries for which data are available. The decline was greater only in Ireland (-17.4%) and Croatia (-8.3%). In Estonia, industrial output in June was 2.9% lower than a year earlier. Meanwhile, of the ten countries where industrial output increased year-on-year, the fastest growth during this period was recorded in Greece (+9.5%), Cyprus (+8.8%), Malta (+6.3%) and Sweden (+3.8%). In Lithuania, industrial output increased by 0.2%. In the EU countries, industrial output in June decreased by 3.2% on average compared to the same month last year, and by 3.9% in the eurozone. In turn, compared to May, industrial output in the EU in June remained at the level of June last year, and in the eurozone it decreased by 0.1%. Compared to the previous month, industrial output decreased in 12 countries, with the fastest decline in Ireland (-7.8%), followed by Belgium (-6.5%), Portugal and Croatia (-3.7% each), and Estonia (-3.6%). The largest increases were recorded in Romania (+4%), Finland (+3.6%) and Slovakia (+2.1%), while in Austria industrial output remained at the previous month's level. In Latvia, industrial output fell by 2.4%, and in Lithuania by 2.2%. Data for Slovenia are not available.
