Real household incomes and consumption in the fourth quarter of 2019 fell in the eurozone, which comprises the 19 countries of the European Union that use the euro as currency, but rose in the EU as a whole, according to a study released by the bloc's statistical commission Eurostat on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2020) Real household incomes and consumption in the fourth quarter of 2019 fell in the eurozone, which comprises the 19 countries of the European Union that use the euro as Currency, but rose in the EU as a whole, according to a study released by the bloc's statistical commission Eurostat on Wednesday.
The study shows that even before lockdown measures were enforced to curb the spread of COVID-19, real household incomes per capita fell in the eurozone by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, after rising by 0.5 percent in the previous quarter. An identical drop in household real consumption per capita was also reported.
When accounting for the six non-euro countries in the European Union, which include Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary, both real household income per capita and real household consumption per capita in the entire bloc rose by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, down from the 0.5 percent growth observed in the previous quarter.
On Tuesday, researchers at Morgan Stanley said that they expect the eurozone economy to contract by almost 11 percent this year due to the economic disruption caused by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Thierry Breton has previously said that the EU will require almost 1.6 trillion Euros ($1.7 trillion) in funds to recover from the economic crisis caused by the global pandemic.
