(Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s economy rebound in the third quarter while Belgium kept expanding, positive omens for euro-zone data due this week.
Irish gross domestic product rose 2% in the three months through September, after a contraction of 1% in the prior period, the statistics agency in Dublin said on Tuesday. Belgian momentum slowed slightly, with a reading of 0.2% — down from 0.3%.
Ireland’s role as a tax base for US multinationals leads to huge swings between growth or contraction that can sometimes influence the overall result for the region. Despite being one of the euro area’s smaller economies, its data have recently had an out-sized effect on expansion when the bloc itself has largely stagnated.
Irish statisticians attributed third-quarter momentum to the country’s international industrial companies.
Policymakers have repeatedly highlighted that GDP isn’t the must accurate measure to gauge Irish growth, and prefer so-called modified domestic demand, or MDD.
Still, any expansion is good news for the government, which is expected to call elections in the coming weeks.
Tuesday’s GDP numbers could potentially support expectations of forecasters that the euro zone kept expanding in the quarter. The median estimate is for a 0.2% increase in GDP, maintaining the pace of the previous quarter. Those data will be released on Wednesday along with statistics from the currency area’s biggest economies.
Meanwhile there was bad news out of Latvia, one of the euro area’s smallest members. It contracted 0.4%, putting the country in recession.
--With assistance from Mark Evans, Giovanni Salzano and Artyom Danielyan.
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