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Eurozone growth exceeded expectations in 2025, despite Trump

by AI | 30.Jan 2026 | Europe in brief AI

Despite the trade shocks linked to Donald Trump’s policy, growth in the eurozone continued its recovery in 2025 and exceeded expectations, reaching 1.5%, helped by good end-of-year figures in several countries.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, gestures while speaking in front of a chart indicating that “Spanish growth is higher than that of the EU,” during a semi-annual press conference at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, on July 28, 2025. (Photo: Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP)

Brussels – The first estimate published on Friday by Eurostat confirms the gradual recovery of the European economy, after a stall at 0.4 % in 2023, followed by a modest rebound to 0.9 % the following year.

With 1.5 %, the 2025 growth rate thus exceeds the forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who were expecting 1.4 %, and those of the Commission (1.3 %).

This performance reflects more dynamic economic activity than expected at the end of last year.

Several eurozone countries in fact published on Friday a fourth-quarter evolution of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that was higher than expected, notably in Germany and Italy (+0.3 % and +0.7 % respectively), as well as in Spain (+0.8 %). Conversely, France posted a disappointing increase (+0.2 %).

As a result, the GDP of the countries that share the single currency rose by 0.3 % in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with the previous quarter and increased by 1.3 % compared with a year earlier, the European statistics office specified. (30 January 2026)