The eurozone economy expanded just 0.1 percent in the first three months of the year over the previous quarterEuropean stock markets retreated Friday as official data confirmed the eurozone is struggling to grow.
Focus is turning to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week, with the market expecting the US central bank to consider strong consumer spending and a drop in weekly jobless claims as evidence that the economy can take more inflation-fighting interest rate hikes.On Friday, the International Monetary Fund's department director for Europe, Alfred Kammer, urged the continent's central banks to"kill the beast" of inflation by continuing to hike interest rates.
"The very small increase in GDP... means a technical recession has been avoided by a whisker," noted Capital Economics' chief Europe economist Andrew Kenningham. On the corporate front Friday, ExxonMobil reported that first-quarter profits more than doubled to $11.4 billion.
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