Inventories push euro zone GDP, jobless hit 10 pct

A stronger jump in inventories and positive but smaller than expected net trade drove the euro zone out of recession in the third quarter, but investment was weaker than thought, revised data showed on Friday.

The European Union's statistics agency confirmed its earlier estimate that the economy of the 16 countries using the euro expanded 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the July-September period, after five quarters of falling output.

But the contributions of individual components of gross domestic product changed — inventories added 0.5 percentage point to the overall result rather than 0.3 percentage point.

Net trade added only 0.1 percentage point, rather than 0.2 percentage point, Eurostat said, and it revised the contribution from investment to a negative 0.2 percentage point from the previously reported -0.1 point.

Household demand remained unchanged, subtracting 0.1 percentage point from the final quarter-on-quarter figure and so did government spending, which added 0.1 point.

Eurostat revised upwards the year-on-year GDP figure for the third quarter to a contraction of 4.0 percent from 4.1 percent and revised higher the quarter-on-quarter number for the second quarter to a contraction of 0.1 percent from 0.2.

Separately, Eurostat said euro zone unemployment jumped more than expected in November to 10.0 percent of the workforce and the jobless rate in October was higher than previously reported at 9.9 percent, rather than 9.8 percent.

For the euro area this was the highest rate since August 1998, Eurostat said.