Euro Zone has Ireland to thank for surprise year-end growth

Before Tuesday’s data, economists had predicted a 0.1% drop in euro-area gross domestic product that then ended up showing a 0.1% expansion.

'Euro-zone growth would have fallen back to 0% if Ireland wasn’t included.'

The euro area’s unexpected growth in the final quarter of 2022 is down to Ireland’s outsized expansion in the period, according to economists.

“The Irish economy, propelled by the presence of multinational corporations, expanded by 3.5% contributing 0.1 percentage points to the euro-area figure and tipping the balance such that the bloc expanded overall,” said Jamie Rush, chief European economist at Bloomberg Economics.