Eurozone growth soars record 12.7% but fears grow for winter

The European economy grew by an unexpectedly large 12.7 percent in the third quarter as companies reopened after severe coronavirus lockdowns, but the rebound is being overshadowed by worries that growing numbers of infections will cause a new downturn in the final months of the year.

The upturn in the July- September quarter, and the worries about what’s ahead, echoed the situation in the United States. Re- openings there led to strong third- quarter growth of 7.4 percent that recovered much of the drop from the first part of the year — but didn’t dispel fears for the winter months.

The European rebound, reflected in figures released Friday by EU statistics agency Eurostat, was the largest increase since statistics started being kept in 1995. It followed an 11.8 percent contraction in the second quarter in the 19 European Union member countries that use the euro currency. The April- June period was when restrictions on activities and gatherings were most severe during the first wave of the pandemic. Many economists had expected a rebound of around 10 percent.

The rebound was led by France, with an enormous 18.2 percent increase, followed by Spain with 16.7 percent and Italy with 16.1 percent.

Rosie Colthorpe, European economist at Oxford Economics, said that the gains made up almost three- quarters of the lost output from the first six months of the year. But she added that “new containment measures mean we think the recovery will grind to a halt in the fourth quarter, with output expected to fall once again.”

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde said Thursday she expected November to be “very negative,” adding that “most likely our fourth quarter number will be to the downside. Will it be negative? We don’t know at this point in time.”

Manufacturing companies have seen a stronger bounce back than services. Automakers like Volkswagen and Daimler AG’s Mercedes- Benz have seen sales and profits rebound, helped by their exposure to China, where the virus hit earlier but has since mostly been contained.