MADRID, 30 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At the end of last year, Spain was confirmed as the large economy in the euro zone that recorded the highest growth both in the fourth quarter of the year and in the whole of last year, after the statistical offices of Germany, France and Italy published this Tuesday their first data on the evolution of their respective economies in the final stretch of 2023.

In this way, Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) accelerated its expansion between October and December to 0.6% from 0.4% in the third quarter, while Italy, the third largest economy in the euro, recorded an expansion of 0.2%, compared to 0.1% in the previous three months.

For their part, the two largest economies in the euro showed greater weakness, since France stagnated in the fourth quarter, maintaining the paralysis of activity observed in the previous three months, while Germany registered a contraction of 0.3% between October and December, after the stagnation of the third quarter.

On average for 2023 as a whole, while Spain’s GDP grew by 2.5%, France’s economy expanded by 0.9% and Italy’s by 0.1%. In the case of Germany, the GDP of Europe’s largest economy registered a contraction of 0.3%.

Outside of Europe, on the other side of the Atlantic, the GDP of the United States registered an expansion of 0.8% in the fourth quarter of the year, moderating four tenths compared to the 1.2% growth of the third quarter.

In 2023 as a whole, the world’s largest economy recorded growth of 2.5%, six tenths above the 1.9% expansion in 2022, despite the tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve (Fed ).

In the case of China, GDP would have registered an expansion of 5.2% in 2023 as a whole, accelerating substantially compared to the 3% growth in 2022, when the world’s second largest economy was slowed by the measures implemented to contain Covid. -19.