EU growth surprises hide clear pattern

THE nations of Europe are often more confusing than Europe as a whole. And three months is a short time for an economy. Those are two lessons from the preliminary first-quarter GDP releases coming out of the Old Continent.

Most of the big economies are not behaving as expected. On Wednesday, Germany reported a 0.3 per cent increase in GDP from the last quarter of 2014. For a supposed regional powerhouse, that was weak. Conversely, the growth in France and Italy ( 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively) did not go along with their perma-stagnation reputations.

Last month, forecasters were unpleasantly surprised by a 0.3 per cent British GDP gain. The number seemed out of line with relatively strong labour market indicators, including the first quarter's 1.9 per cent annual increase in weekly wages, reported on Wednesday.