BRUSSELS, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The European Commission's data office Monday lowered its estimate of second quarter economic growth for the European Union, but not for the eurozone.
In the third of three estimates of the gross domestic product for the two regions, Eurostat dropped the measure for the 27-member EU in the second quarter from 0.4 percent growth to 0.3 percent. For the 17-member currency region known as the eurozone, the GDP was left unchanged at 0.3 percent in the third estimate, which is released approximately 100 days after each quarter ends.
The EU in the second quarter consisted of 27 members although it added Croatia to its ranks on the first of July.
Eurostat said the GDP from the second quarter of 2012 was down 0.6 percent in the eurozone and 0.2 percent in the EU, both an improvement over the first quarter when the regions were 1.2 percent and 0.8 percent lower than the same period a year earlier.
