Eurostat raises second-quarter estimate: eurozone at +0.6%, Italy stuck at +0.2%

Eurostat has revised upward growth for the second quarter of 2026: seasonally adjusted gross domestic product rose by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.7% in the European Union compared with the previous quarter. The estimate published on August 14 — which we reported on August 15 — indicated +0.4% and +0.5%: the correction is two tenths of a point in both areas.

Year on year, the picture improves to a similar degree: +1.2% in the euro area and +1.4% in the Union, after the +0.6% and +0.9% recorded in the previous quarter. This is the highest year-on-year pace of the two readings available for the first half of the year, and the comparison with the previous quarter points to an acceleration, not a mere accounting adjustment.

Italy is not part of the revision. The Italian figure remains +0.2% quarter on quarter and +1.0% year on year: the gap with the euro area average, which the newspaper had flagged in mid-August, widens because the denominator has moved and the Italian numerator has not. On a year-on-year basis the gap is narrower, one point against the eurozone’s 1.2%.

The geography of growth explains much of the correction. The largest quarterly increase is Ireland’s: +10.2%, a figure that alone weighs on the euro area aggregate despite the country’s small economic size. Far behind follow Slovenia (+1.8%) and Lithuania (+1.7%). The only member state in contraction is Austria, at -0.1%. The picture should be read with the caution that Irish data have long required owing to the volatility of items attributable to multinationals: one of the outlets that picked up the release in fact headlines the slowdown in growth excluding Ireland, but the release does not provide an alternative aggregate and this newspaper does not calculate one.

The labor market is moving less than output. Employment grew by 0.1% in both the euro area and the Union, with 221.4 million people employed across the twenty-seven member states, of whom 176.4 million in the eurozone. The gap between accelerating output and near-flat employment is the variable to watch in the coming quarters, as it bears directly on output per worker.

The transatlantic comparison is reversed from the first estimate. In the same quarter U.S. GDP grew by 0.4% quarter on quarter and by 2.1% year on year: the euro area is now ahead on the quarterly measure and still behind on the annual one.

A note on methodology. The figure has a single primary source, the Eurostat release of September 7, 2026, picked up by the outlets cited below: this is the institutional source producing the statistic, not a news item with independent confirmations. Subsequent revisions by the European statistical office, as this one shows, can shift the aggregate by two tenths of a point.

The next step on the calendar is already set: the Commission convenes the College on September 9, and the State of the Union address is scheduled for the 16th in Strasbourg, as reported on September 5. The revised figure therefore reaches the College’s table two days after publication.

Sources: Eunews; Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor; LaPresse; France Épargne — all originating from the Eurostat release of September 7, 2026.