Economic activity expanded at a far brisker pace here in 2017 than it had one year earlier. An annual average growth rate of 2.5% was achieved – the best figure in ten years. This is partly why the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level, 8.7%, since early 2009.
A host of sentiment indicators for the euro area are at their highest levels in many years. The favourable developments in economic activity are therefore expected to continue in the first instance. In December last year, Eurosystem economists thus again raised their growth forecasts for this year and the next. They now expect growth rates of 2.3% this year and 1.9% next year.