Martin SantaBRUSSELS — The German and French economies grew faster than the United States in the second quarter, pulling the eurozone out of its longest recession. Growth in the 17-country bloc was 0.3% from the previous quarter, with its two biggest economies both revealing unexpected strength, data from the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat showed on Wednesday. A Reuters poll had forecast 0.2%. Germany grew 0.7%, its largest expansion in more than a year thanks largely to domestic private and public consumption. Related Number of unemployed in eurozone falls for first time in 2 years in another encouraging economic sign Turmoil in Portugal, Greece threatens to reawaken the eurozone beast? Leaked report shows IMF bungled $49B Greek bailout by trying to save eurozone rather than the country The return to modest rates of economic growth in the eurozone as a whole won’t address the deep-seated economic and fiscal problems of the peripheral countries France’s economy expanded 0.5%, pulling out of a shallow recession to post its strongest quarterly growth since early 2011. The turnaround was driven by consumer spending and industrial output, although investment dropped again. That compared with around 0.4% growth in the quarter – 1.7% annualized – in the United States, considered one of the bright spots of the global recovery. “For next year, our projections show the (European) recovery should be on a more solid footing, as
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